Celebrating record Australian visitor numbers, the VisitBritain Australia team recently engaged imaginative British-born chef, Nelly Robinson of Nel. Restaurant to bring to life Britain’s popular film and TV highlights on a plate.
At Sydney’s Nel. Restaurant, VisitBritain gathered a group of media for a taste of Britain on a plate. The event was hosted by VisitBritain team members, Maria Sykes, Country Manager for AU/NZ and Amelia Robertson, Communications Manager AU/NZ.
“We are experiencing something extraordinary out of Australia at the moment… I want to share some skyrocketing results with you. Traditionally, Australia has always added about one billion pounds sterling to the British visitor economy. Then Covid happened. 2022 was a 10.5 month year and Australia landed fourth most valuable country in the world, to Britain, at that time,” said Sykes.
“In 2023, you might say pent up demand… the bubble’s got to burst, it can’t last forever. But in fact in 2023, the second quarter, we became the third most valuable nation to Britain. But hang onto your hats because in Q3, smashing all records, for that quarter we became the second most valuable nation to the British visitor economy – second only to the USA. And I say, watch out America!”
The run rate for the nine months of 2023 (that they have data for, so far) is 1.3 billion pounds sterling.
“So my calculator tracks us to be hitting 1.6 or even 1.7 billion for the total year. It’s a phenomenal result.
“The pace of that recovery is also remarkable… from the start of 2022 until the end, the value out of Australia more than quadrupled,” said Sykes.
“The Aussie traveller is a coveted thing, and becoming more coveted. They stay twice as long, they spend twice as much and I talk a lot about the connective tissue that binds Australia and Britain. Bound by all manner of things: heritage, history, culture and a little bit of sporting rivalry.”
Set jetting: on a plate
“We’re here to talk about Screen Tourism and set jetting. We know that about one third of people travel to Britain motivated to actually see the places they’ve seen on their small screens or on the silver screen. It’s a powerful motivator to travel. We’re known for it. Film and TV as industries are worth almost 13 billion pounds sterling to Britain,” said Sykes.
It was revealed at the lunch that VisitBritain’s marketing campaigns in ‘24 will be using the powerful pull of screen tourism to boost visitation to Britain.
“I’m really thrilled to announce that Visit Britain will be launching its international marketing campaign and it will come to Australia since way back beyond, pre Covid. At the heart of this campaign…. the theme will be Starring Great Britain,” said Sykes.
The creative content is currently under development with no set date announced for its release. The team hopes for a campaign launch some time later in 2024.
Chef Nelly Robinson had prepared a number of dishes with a creative twist – all inspired by British film and television. The dishes were designed to take guests on a theatrical culinary journey across England, Scotland and Wales.
Asked by Skyes what Robinson thought was behind the renaissance and growing food trend in Britain, Robinson says “youth” plays a key part.
“I think straight away, the old days of the classically trained chefs… that’s gone now. Youth chefs coming through in different countries, Scandinavia especially, is one of the hot spots of the world. A lot of us have gone to Scandinavia, learned different ways of cooking, and bought it back to Britain.
“The old guard is moving on… we’ve seen that a little bit in Sydney too, as it does in every industry. I think that helps with regenerating cities. It’s not just London… I stress this all the time. Get out of London! There’s so many places in the UK that are so beautiful – like the little villages and even pubs have Michelin-starred restaurants. There’s a real big push now to get out of London and start seeing Britain. There’s a road that goes from the north of Yorkshire all the way through to Manchester and it has eight Michelin-starred restaurants on it. Nobody knows about it,” said Robinson.
Guests dined on dishes inspired by Harry Potter, Bridgerton, Peaky Blinders, James Bond 007 and of course, Paddington Bear.
Speaking about the Peak Blinders ‘The Black Country’ fish, potato and peas, Robinson said: “These days, Birmingham is such a beautiful city and they’ve spent a lot of money on it to really revamp it…. And I don’t know if most of you know this but they’ve actually got the most Michelin-starred restaurants in Britain, outside of London which is actually remarkable for where they were about 10 years ago. The culinary scene is really growing rapidly,” he said.
For more information, visit visitbritain.com
