Experience Oxfordshire announces Spring into Summer campaign results
Experience Oxfordshire, the official Local Visitor Economic Partnership[1] (LVEP) for the county has shared the excellent results generated by its Spring into Summer campaign.
With its focus on the breadth and quality of the arts and culture available throughout the county’s five districts, the campaign’s objective was to encourage residents and visitors to explore Oxfordshire and take advantage of the rich range of events and experiences on offer during the spring and summer months.
The organisation re-developed its online event listing capacity, What’s On in Oxfordshire, and worked with venues and event organisers across Oxfordshire to build up a digital bank of arts and culture event information, the online Arts&CultureHub. Digital marketing activity across multiple channels, Facebook, Instagram, native ads and Google Search, was used to engage with and inspire visitors to plan a short getaway on the strength of Oxfordshire’s arts and culture scene and outdoor experiences.
Audiences within a two hour drive of Oxfordshire were targeted resulting in over 10.3 million individuals engaging with the campaign and generating 105,000 visits to the campaign web pages. 750 events were featured and over 1,000 people opted in to hear more on a regular basis.
Experience Oxfordshire’s CEO, Hayley Beer-Gamage said: “The campaign delivered an excellent return on investment in terms of overall engagement and traffic, contributing significantly to the objective of maintaining the county’s profile as a world-renowned, desirable destination for tourism, culture and business.
It’s important to us that our activity should have a long-lasting, positive impact on the county’s visitor economy. By focussing on the county’s arts, culture and spring/summer events programme, we aimed to encourage visitors to either remember, or to take a fresh look at Oxfordshire this year. We also wanted to inspire future visitation. We are therefore delighted with the campaign’s results and will bring the expertise developed during this campaign, and from the previous Only in Oxfordshire 2022 activity, to our 2023 autumn-winter campaign.”
Experience Oxfordshire has been commissioned by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) to deliver three strategic campaigns under their Visitor Economy Renaissance Programme (VERP), which supports the sector’s ongoing re-emergence from Covid-19. Funding for the programme was secured via Oxfordshire County Council’s Contain Outbreak Management Fund.
Helen Ryan-Wallis – Programme Manager (Strategy) at OxLEP said: “The VERP initiative focusses on supporting the recovery of the county’s visitor economy post pandemic and we were delighted to see this campaign focussing on the Arts and Cultural sector, which is such a huge asset in driving the visitor economy in Oxfordshire.
The development of a central depository for details of What’s On in Oxfordshire and the related Arts&CultureHub leave lasting legacies, providing up-to-date information and supporting the arts, cultural and events sectors through the rest of 2023 and into the future.”
For the latest information on Experience Oxfordshire’s upcoming campaign activity follow @ExperienceOxBiz or email marketing@experienceoxfordshire.org
To submit an event to ExperienceOxfordshire.org use the Submit an event online form.
**ENDS**
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
Image: Available via the following link.
Experience Oxfordshire is the official Destination Management Organisation (DMO) for Oxfordshire. It is the trading arm of the parent charity, Experience Oxfordshire Charitable Trust, and is a not-for-profit partnership organisation that is committed to the promotion, management, and development of Oxfordshire as a great destination to live, work, visit and do business whilst improving growth and productivity across the visitor economy. The DMO provides essential business advice and support to visitor economy businesses across Oxfordshire.
Read more on Experience Oxfordshire’s activity in our Highlights 2022-23 here
For more information on Experience Oxfordshire go to www.experienceoxfordshire.org/partner or contact partnership@experienceoxfordshire.org
Media contact: Lesley Wright / press@experienceoxfordshire.org / 01865 686433
You can keep up to date with Experience Oxfordshire’s activity by following:
Facebook – Experience Oxfordshire
Instagram – @experienceoxfordshire
X – @ExperienceOx and @ExperienceOxBiz
LinkedIn – Experience Oxfordshire
The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) champions Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic and growing economy. Its vision for Oxfordshire being ‘a vibrant, sustainable, inclusive, world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise and research excellence’.
Find out more via www.oxfordshirelep.com. Click here for more information about the Visitor Economy Renaissance Programme (VERP).
Oxfordshire’s Visitor Economy
The current status, as per the 2021 economic impact survey results, shows a significant recovery in volume of trips and related expenditure compared to 2020 but remains below the levels seen in 2019.
- Value: £1.6bn = 56% increase in value on 2020 (36% down on 2019)
- Trips: 23.3m = 56% increase in trips on 2020
- Day trips expenditure is down 26% on pre-pandemic levels and overnight expenditure down 51%
- Employment: 28.8k = 13% increase in jobs supported (33% down on 2019)
[1] In March 2023 was one of the first destinations in England to gain Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) status from national tourist board, VisitEngland. LVEPs have been established as part of the UK Government’s response to recommendations to reshape destination management across England, reducing fragmentation and bringing coherence to its destination management landscape. As an LVEP, Experience Oxfordshire is recognised as a high-performing organisation, supporting collaborative working both locally, through its network of partners and those with interest in the visitor economy, and nationally on shared priorities.
