DESTINATIONNEWS
£3.7m for historic ride park By Louise Cordell PLANS to create the world's first historic ride amusement park in Margate have taken a major step forward, with news that the project will receive £3.7m from the Government's Sea Change fund. The money will help to create a theme park at the Dreamland site, giving visitors the chance to enjoy historic amusement park rides. Many of these have been rescued from amusement parks
across the UK over the past few years and are the last surviving examples of their type. The rides will be built around a park centrepiece, the Scenic Railway, which is the UK's oldest surviving wooden roller coaster and restoration work will also be carried out on the grade two listed Dreamland cinema building. Richard Samuel, chief executive of Thanet District Council, said: “We're absolutely delighted with this news.
Visitors to Liverpool have been able to take part in Britain’s biggest winter public art extravaganza – over 200 giant penguin statues dotted around the city. The Go Penguins were on parade across Merseyside to highlight the dangers of global warming and polar ice cap melting. Shoppers could follow a trail around the city to discover the penguins – which have been designed by locals and celebrities – and visitors to the world famous Albert Dock could also watch a special installation of several penguins in bathing costumes at a specially created lido. The free event was delivered by Wild In Art, the people behind Go Superlambananas – a highlight of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations.
“Dreamland is a key site for Margate's regeneration and a priority for local people and these plans for a major visitor attraction complement the work already underway on Turner Contemporary. “Dreamland is of national importance and is a completely unique attraction and this announcement should help to put it back in its rightful place in the hearts of visitors from across the country and further afield.”
It is hoped that the park will create a major new visitor attraction in the heart of the town and provide a major boost for the tourism economy. The park will generate employment opportunities for local people and will aim to attract around 700,000 visits each year. The public will be able to enter the park and landscaped gardens free of charge, with wristbands being sold for those who want to go on the rides.
Visitors invited to follow in Sherlock Holmes’ footsteps TOURISTS have been invited to discover Sherlock Holmes’ Britain with a campaign linking to the release of a new film. Celebrating the release of Sherlock Holmes – a new actionadventure mystery starring Robert Downey Jr. as the legendary detective – VisitBritain has joined forces with producers Warner Bros to allow visitors to follow in his footsteps via an online movie map. The campaign showcases locations with links to Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – including places in London,
Liverpool and Manchester where scenes from the film were shot. The dedicated website features footage from the film and locations both from the film and from across Britain linked to the detective. VisitBritain’s marketing director Laurence Bresh said: “Sherlock Holmes is known around the world as one of Britain’s most iconic characters. Our partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures is a great way of helping people discover the secrets of our destinations and entice them into having a fantastic adventure here.”
Devon firm turns to Google A DEVON based accommodation provider is celebrating after using the power of the internet to stay one step ahead of competitors. Collacot Holiday Cottages is situated in a prime tourist location – so with plenty of competition, owner Richard Harrison had to think creatively to get ahead of his rivals. To do this, he joined forces with consultancy Open Eye Marketing, which suggested using online tools such as Google Local Business Results to direct more traffic to the cottages’ website. This allows businesses to achieve first page positioning by securing popular search phrases. In this case the keywords included ‘holiday
cottage in north devon’ and ‘short breaks in devon'. Richard explained: "With many of our competitors struggling in these tough times we continue to have high occupancy all year round and our rankings on Google play a significant factor in our success. "Our potential customers are using Google every minute of every day, so it's therefore essential that we and other accommodation providers make the most of it.” Website traffic has been boosted by 300 per cent and in just one month, the site had over 8,000 page views and was found by over 1,300 different search phrases on Google.
Tropical times at Kew KEW Gardens will be brightening visitors’ cold winter days with its tropical extravaganza festival, which takes place during February and March. As part of the festival, the Princess of Wales Conservatory will
be filled with thousands of vibrant orchids and tropical plants. The Waterlily House will also be home to displays highlighting some of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, such as Madagascar, which boasts over 1,000 species of orchid.
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