Britain's Heritage Cities,and the VisitBritain Travel Writing Awards. New York. March 7, 2006.As you know, Britain's Heritage Cities were proud sponsors of the prestigious 2006 VisitBritain Travel Writing Awards. Individually, the names of Bath, Brighton, Chester, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and York are already well known to just about everyone in the world. But the purpose of our involvement in the Travel Writing Awards earlier this year was to show that, collectively, Britain's Heritage Cities offer an even greater range of vacation opportunities to the discerning American visitor.
Better still, the www.heritagecities.com website now provides one-stop shopping for anyone wanting to book a trip to one or more of these historic cities.
As well as containing some of the finest treasures and attractions in Britain, each one of the six cities also offers a vibrant stopping-off-point for a touring vacation in the United Kingdom. And this obvious link to VisitBritain's new 'Touring' campaign provided yet another key to Britain's Heritage Cities' decision to offer the main prize in the 2006 VisitBritain Travel Writing Award.
Giles Ingram and Craig Wilson were Britain's Heritage Cities representatives at the awards ceremony in New York, and were able to offer help, advice and a considerable amount of information to the US travel writers they met on the day.
For anyone unable to meet Giles and Craig, and who would like to now know more about Britain's Heritage Cities and the services which it offers - not only to the American public, but just as importantly, to travel media - this personalized "news release" is our way of inviting you to contact us for any further information, either now, or at some time in the future.
We offer regular news updates, sample itineraries showing just how easy it is to spend a week touring Britain's Heritage Cities, images, and – of course – familiarization visits for commissioned journalists.
To whet your appetite still further, here's some of the latest 'hot-off-the-press' news from each of the six cities:
Bath – Thermae Bath Spa due to open May/June 2006
www.thermaebathspa.comBrighton – England's largest arts festival, the Brighton Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary this year
www.brightonfestival.orgChester - Summer Festival of Church Music, Classical, Folk, Jazz &Comedy begins with Folk Festival May 26th-29th
www.visitchester.comOxford - £50 million Oxford Castle re-development completed
www.oxfordcastle.comStratford-upon-Avon – The RSC announces full programme for the "Complete Works" festival
www.rsccompleteworks.comYork – The National Railway Museum will this month be 'home' to the city's newest and most dramatic visitor attraction, The Yorkshire Wheel
www.nrm.org.ukFor more details, log on to…www.heritagecities.com.
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All media enquires, meanwhile, can be directed to:
Suzanne Lockhart Tel: +44(0) 1865 252406
E-mail: slockhart@oxford.gov.uk