The latest phase of Cumbria Tourism’s green travel campaign encouraging people to take more environmentally-friendly staycations by rail has prompted thousands more visitors to choose train travel – saving 1.3million miles in car journeys.
Over the six week campaign period, more than 8,000 people took advantage of Northern’s special 50% off ticket deal to travel to and along the Lakes Line alone. Once here it’s estimated these rail passengers generated around £1.1million in revenue for tourism-related businesses.
Visitors were prompted to choose train travel following Cumbria Tourism’s six week burst of high-profile marketing activity, with Carlisle, Morecambe Bay, Cumbria’s west coast and the Central Lakes among the accessible car-free destinations highlighted.
Overall, the campaign has reached 30 million people so far. Highlights include achieving almost 1.5millon playthroughs of Cumbria Tourism’s new high-impact videos on ITV On Demand, YouTube and other online channels.
At the same time, there has been inspirational big screen advertising promoting the Lake District, Cumbria at some of the country’s busiest commuter hubs, such as London Euston, Manchester Airport and Liverpool Line Street. The region also featured on a huge 12 metre wide ‘digi-bridge’ across the Mancunian Way – one of the North West’s busiest car commuter routes.
The key aim was to help restore visitor confidence in rail travel, following the highly-publicised disruption to train services over the past 18 months.
Cumbria Tourism’s Head of Marketing and Partnerships, Rachel Tyson, says, “The reaction to our green travel campaign so far has been phenomenal. People have been actively engaging with the online content and crucially, more visitors are choosing car-free staycations in the Lake District, Cumbria.
“However, we know that there are still many misconceptions out there about travelling by train and we are now getting stuck into the third phase of the campaign to continue drumming home positive travel messages, practical ideas and inspiration.”
Cllr Keith Little, Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport says, “I am delighted that Cumbria Tourism’s green travel campaign to encourage visitors to come to our beautiful county is proving to be successful. Last year’s rail disruption had a severe impact on Cumbrian commuters and businesses, and we worked hard to secure funding from Transport for the North for a marketing campaign to help show that the Lake District, Cumbria is open and easy to access by public transport.
“Cumbria is a year round tourist destination and I’m hopeful that we’ll continue to see visitors making use of green travel options and exploring our many attractions as we move into the autumn and winter months.”
Phase three of the travel campaign will get underway this Autumn, with the Cumbria Tourism team continuing to drum home positive travel messages, practical content and inspiration.
