Welcome to the West Midlands

VisitBritain aims to use the upcoming Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games as a hook to talk about the West Midlands and to encourage the visitors to choose this region to explore when they visit the United Kingdom. A networking dinner aimed to take trade partners through the region and tell them about ticketing.

Hazel Jain

VisitBritain recently organised a networking dinner with its key trade partners in Mumbai, with the agenda to talk about the West Midlands and the Commonwealth Games. Shuja Bin Mehdi, B2B Manager – India, VisitBritain, said, “We want to educate the travel trade about the West Midlands, which is going to host the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Our objective was to take them through the region and tell them about the ticketing that is happening for next year as well as encourage them to start selling the region a little more.”

Speaking about how the past year has been for VisitBritain, Mehdi adds, “It has been very encouraging honestly. Even though the year started with the second wave hitting India, in terms of the numbers of visitors to the UK, we are sort of coming back on track in comparison to 2020. In terms of 2019, obviously, we are a little down. But what is encouraging to see is the growth in family visits, people who are going there accompanied by their children who are going there as students – that was also at a high. We see good potential going into 2022. I think the numbers are going to pick up again and we will be back to the 2019 numbers in the next couple of years.”

The NTOs have already tweaked their strategies, keeping the pandemic in mind. “We are now focusing more on the West Midlands region because they are going to be playing host to the Commonwealth Games. We will continue to focus on the Manchester and the North of England as well as London plus destinations and go forth with our focus on the Scotland, which really works in India as a destination,” he adds. Numbers for the Commonwealth Games will depend upon how India as a country performs at these big-ticket sporting events, Mehdi explains. “We have had the Indian team display their best performance in the recent Tokyo Olympics last year. That will go very well into the Commonwealth Games next year. I think the Indian contingent is going to perform really well. The interest level is going to peak around July-August when the Games actually happen. And we hope that will encourage more and more people to visit during the Games. Our objective is to use the Games as a hook to talk about the destination and encourage people to visit the wider West Midlands region,” he adds.