The Partnership Award

2024

Nominee

Finalist

Shortlist

Winner

New Adventures

Destination North East England

The North East of England has an innovative visitor offer, however, to ensure we continued to grow the visitor economy we needed look at how we continue to create new novel, authentic visitor experiences and products that reflect the richness and uniqueness of our offer and that attracted new global audiences and markets, supporting industry and the growth of our visitor economy.

Our New Adventures platform brings together new and existing adventures and experiences the North East. Visitors to our region can book a range of activities all in one place, allowing them to plan with ease and truly enjoy the best our region has to offer. From active, foodie and winter escape ideas, New Adventures is all about adding elements together to create the perfect adventure.

New Adventures gives business the opportunity to promote their bookable products online. To ultimately:

  • Drive the growth of the visitor economy and support the profitability of our industry.
  • Attract new audiences to a range of activities, experiences, and services in the North East of England by increasing the levels of ‘bookable products’ available.
  • Provide a new route to market and the ability to offer bookable product through a visitor-facing bespoke campaign microsite  
  • Provide businesses access to an entirely new marketplace
  • Support businesses to increase reach and boost profile for their products and services.
  • Reach new markets in line with a product development strategy that will help to attract more national and international visitors to our region.

Our new adventures website, brand and marketing campaign plays a key role in reaching new markets and is a platform to not only showcases existing products, but new products. A key component of our long-term strategy to grow our local economy.

New Adventures has created an entirely new marketplace, increasing awareness of leisure experience brands in North East England. It also opened the door for some New Adventures products to be featured in national campaigns run by VisitBritain, increasing their reach exponentially via the TXGB sales channel. Developing new products and in particular bookable product allows us to highlight the offer of the region and addresses the challenge of committing consumers to booking consumers who have booked in advance are significantly more likely to take their trip compared to those who make last minute decisions.

We have broadened our booking channels beyond TXGB to include partnerships with industry leaders such as Get Your Guide, Fareharbor, Viator, and our valued corporate partner, Virgin Experience Days. By collaborating on an affiliate basis with these leading providers, we’ve successfully embedded various availability calendars and booking links directly into our experience pages. This strategic move has expanded our product range significantly, allowing us to feature a wider variety of offerings across the region on our website.

New Adventures has created an entirely new marketplace, increasing awareness of leisure experience brands in North East England reaching 21.4 million people to date.

Judges Comments

New Adventures marks a step-change away from traditional digital approaches to destination marketing and focuses on driving an uptick in the experience economy. Rather than presenting the destination through inspiration, the platform takes a bold leap towards shaping unique bookable experiences with a fresh approach, driven through a new brand and website.

With a focus on both advocating uptake of bookability across the industry in the North East of England, in partnership with TXGB and supported by VisitEngland and VisitBritain, it is clear that NGI have recognised their role not only in promoting the destination but also by working in partnership with its businesses, destination partners and technology partners to create a strong and compelling call to action. This delivers fulfilment in the form of unique bookable experiences, positioned differently to what already exists on the market.

The bold design of New Adventures in its conscious decision to move away from the traditional 'visit' branding, alongside the opportunity recognised to prototype new ideas and technologies is interesting. The judges thought that the development of an AI powered chatbot, the focus on specific types of experiences which are carefully curated for the intended audience and the growth in accessibility by integrating a range of booking platforms presented interesting learning opportunities.

Other Submissions for

The Partnership Award

The People's Choice Award Winner

The Partnership Award

Winner

The People's Choice Award Winner