Marketing Campaigns overview, and how to feature in them. 

Tip: Looking for our campaigns timetable for this year? CLICK HERE

We believe that the Isle of Wight is a fantastic place to visit, for the day, a short break or a longer holiday.

More than half of all the families and couples who visit us every year fall in love with the Island and visit regularly, some for many years. We know this through a survey of 15,000 people carried out last year. Therefore, if we can increase the number of people who visit us for the first time, we will be laying down the foundations for repeat visits over future years.

Last year 30,000 visitors came to the Island for the very first time. The number of first time visitors has been growing for the last four years. We think that within three years we can increase the number of first time visitors to 60,000 a year, and increase the number of repeat visits in any one season. Overall, we hope to grow the overall number of visitors from 2.7million a year to 3 million a year by 2021.

The main purpose of our campaigns is to attract new visitors from the UK mainland and overseas. We choose themes, imagery, and messages that we think will grab the attention of our target customers, and showcase Island tourism and hospitality products and experiences.

Of course we must also keep reminding our regular and occasional visitors to keep visiting as well, so that they don’t drift off and become loyal to other destinations.

Our campaigns tell all potential visitors what makes the Isle of Wight a special place to visit at a specific time of year. We try to inspire them, and provide reasons to book a visit now.

Campaign Descriptions and Timetable

Visit Isle of Wight divides campaigns into three types: thematic, cluster or event.

A thematic campaign has an underlying theme, (eg wellness or maritime) and takes place during specific periods of the year.

A cluster campaign is aimed at trade customers and specialist audiences (eg coach tours or weddings & celebration venues) and happens over longer periods.

An event campaign attracts mainland visitors to a specific event or festival. We promote all events, but we work closest with events we believe are “attract” events that will deliver large numbers of new visitors to the Island for many years to come.

How you get involved in our campaigns

Many people are put off by the complexity of marketing plans, but all you need to know is that these campaigns are all created with the purpose of promoting tourism & hospitality businesses on the Isle of Wight to potential customers who’ve never been here before.

If your tourism business fits in with a particular thematic campaign or wants to reach a specific type of cluster customers…

1. Subscribe to our industry newsletter to receive alerts about upcoming toolkits
2. Download the Campaign Timetable 
3. Contact Visit Isle of Wight to discuss ideas or let us know about a package, product, event or activity that we should include.