Britain’s Most Unappreciated Destinations
The marketing people always have to have a descriptor when they promote a destination. Glasgow is Scotland with Style, Dublin is Truly Madly Deeply, Benidorm is Spanish Fiestas, Melbourne is Lose Yourself and Arnhem in the Netherlands is the Cool Region.
I mention Arnhem because Professor Gert-Jan Hospers has said that the marketing of a city is due to geography rather than just some marketing jingle. He says that tourism officers should use “warm” marketing to persuade people to stay in their hometowns and that to entice us people who don’t live there, they should use marketing that suggests these places offer something we don’t have.
For a start he is speaking from the “cool region.” Would that entice you? Nearby Vlissingen is described as “Pounding Like the Sea” and Carmarthenshire was once described as “The Garden of Wales” All very evocative but what appeals to you and what doesn’t. How would you attract people to Newport in South Wales, Dungeness in Kent, Lewisham in South London or Armley in Leeds? Would you bother?
We thought that we would try to find out the most unappreciated destination in each of our countries and let them promote themselves to you so on Monday we will contact all the destinations in the UK to tell them. We’ll let you know from time-to-time which destinations enter and we’ll announce the winners just before Christmas. And then in January, you’ll hear from each of them.
And if you want to suggest somewhere, please contact us.
Entries (RSS 2.0)
Unappreciated destinations:
England – Leigh, Greater Manchester
Wales – Merthyr Tydfil
Scotland – Bathgate
Thanks for these three Tim
I think we should look and write about these. So sometime in the new year, we will.