The Great West Way

A new bookable, multi-modal touring route from London to Bristol, designed to bring more tourism to the region, has been declared open. The Great West Way was declared officially open November 5 at the world’s biggest travel trade show, World Travel Market.

Funded by the UK Government’s Discover England Fund, this new bookable touring route encompasses a 500-mile network of road, rail, river, canal and paths from London to Bristol and has been brought to market by over 300 local tourism businesses and 23 Official Tour Operators.

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Must- see Manchester

Fall in love with art 
Transformed and extended thanks to a £15 million development project, the Whitworth Gallery re-opened on Valentine's Day in 2015. Its collection includes historic fine art by William Blake and Rossetti, contemporary art, sculpture, and an internationally-renowned textile collection of 20,000 pieces dating from the 3rd century AD.  

Style, art, craft & culture
For the city's best independent shopping, head to the Northern Quarter. This once rundown area of Manchester city centre is now known for its stores, cafés, bars, and creative spaces, offering a distinct alternative to the big brands found in the city's mammoth shopping malls. A not-for-profit social enterprise, #Manchester Craft & Design Centre, is home to more than 30 designer and makers who sell their handmade work direct from their studios.

Learn more about Manchester via its libraries
Manchester has several libraries worth visiting: to appreciate their impressive architecture as well as to peruse the books and historic collections. Re-opened since 2014 following a major renovation, Manchester Central Library is a grand-domed rotunda whose design is reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome. Part of the University of Manchester, the John Rylands Library is a red brick Victorian neo-Gothic landmark with a collection including medieval illuminated manuscripts and a Gutenberg Bible. Its Reading Room is a two-storey cathedral of literature.

Manchester's music
One of Manchester's long-established music venues, Band on the Wall, has witnessed all kinds of music genres, from jazz to punk. Famous local post-punk bands Buzzcocks, the Fall and Joy Division have played there. It's also known as a place to spot up-and-coming talent: Mick Hucknall performed here pre-Simply Red, while an unknown Björk sang backing vocals there in 1982. Now a not-for-profit venue run by registered charity Inner City Music, performances on the main stage help to support the charity's school and community education endeavours. 

Take a self-guided tour with a free app
Download the Official Manchester Walking Tours app. There's an Architectural Highlights tour and a Northern Quarter created by official city tour guides, plus a Cultural Tour voiced by DJ and music journalist Mary Anne Hobbs. Landmarks to look out for include Castlefield Basin, The Molly House in Manchester's famous gay village, the Museum of Science and Industry, and HOME, Manchester's new centre for contemporary art, theatre, and cinema. If you prefer human guidance, a group of official tour guides do a daily walking tour that commences at 11am outside the Central Library.

Greater Manchester
Thirty minutes west of the centre by bus or Metrolink tram is Salford Quays. This rejuvenated quayside quarter is home to cultural landmarks The Imperial War Museum North and The Lowry arts complex – admission to both is free. Also part of the re-development is MediaCityUK, home to major BBC and ITV television shows.

United!
Old Trafford is home to Manchester United Football Club. Fans can go behind the scenes on a stadium tour.

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Picture Credit:By Sue Adair, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14156596

Bidding open for £40 million Discover England fund

VISITENGLAND is now accepting bids for its multi-million pound fund to drive tourism growth across England. The three-year, £40 million Discover England fund was announced by the government last year and was set up to help create a ‘world-class’ tourism offer in England, and to boost in-bound and domestic spend across the country.

VisitEngland has published the criteria for the fund’s first year, which is calling on applications for projects up to £250,000, which can be completed by March 31, 2017. Destinations and businesses of all sizes are urged to submit bids.

The fund will also be used to tackle some of the challenges facing English tourism, and support in-bound tourism, described as one of England’s most ‘successful export industries’.

VisitEngland/VisitBritain chief executive Sally Balcombe said: ‘While London continues to have global appeal, with more than half of international visitor spend, there is a wealth of attractions for visitors to enjoy beyond the capital. Our transport connections don’t always make this exploration easy, and customers now expect to book online, use distributors and comparison websites, and see availability at short notice, so we need to be digitally savvy as an industry to keep ahead.”

www.discoverenglandfund.org


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Regional roadshow to showcase £40 million tourism plan

THE UK’S interim tourism minister David Evennett MP will tour the English regions during February to consult the trade about the £40 million Discover England fund. He is taking over the ministerial brief from Tracey Crouch MP while she is on maternity leave.

Unveiled late last year as part of the government’s spending review, the £40 million fund aims to help visitors discover destinations beyond London. The roadshow will travel to Bristol, Newcastle, Cambridge, Manchester, and Birmingham to engage with a wide range of people in the sector.

Mr Evennett said: ‘One of my first tasks in this role is an enviable one – I will be speaking to the sector about the fantastic opportunity open to English tourism at the launch of the new £40 million Discover England fund regional roadshow. This money will be central to us delivering the Prime Minister’s vision for tourism which encourages more tourists to travel beyond London and enjoy the national treasures and hidden gems the rest of England has to offer.

‘The government has given the clearest signal that we are behind the English tourism industry. It’s a direct investment that will help areas across the country grow their tourism offer and get more people to explore the breadth and depth of our country. Our aim is that over the next three years, regions and areas will work together to build world-class itineraries. This is a smarter way of working that will allow for greater coordination within tourism and beyond so we offer the absolute best to visitors from home and abroad.’

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