The digital marketing manager at Visit West, the destination management organisation behind Visit Bristol, has been recognised for her continued commitment and excellence in the field of digital marketing.
Laura Valentine scooped the Digital Marketing Excellence Award at the inaugural summit and awards ceremony by Simpleview, the tourism industry’s leading global provider of digital marketing systems and technologies.
Laura, pictured with Simpleview senior account manager Matt Bassett and Dan Mills, Visit West head of commercial & industry engagement, has worked for Visit West and its predecessor organisation for 11 years.
Her role includes creating new pages and sections, features, editing and updating content, SEO on its websites as well as new developments, overseeing new websites and liaising regularly with its development and web team.
She collected her award at a gala dinner and presentation ceremony staged in Liverpool’s iconic Royal Liver Building.
The awards were established to recognise and acknowledge the work being done across destinations to promote tourism, travel and events.
Visit West head of marketing Jon Chamberlain said: “As digital marketing manager for the organisation, and working closely with Simpleview, Laura has been integral to launching five new websites including Visit Bristol, Visit Bath and Visit West.
“With an incredible passion and enthusiasm for digital marketing Laura has worked to continually develop the Visit Bath and Visit Bristol websites to be some of the highest performing destination websites in the country.
“Her commitment to continually learning and developing and championing digital marketing channels and techniques is outstanding.”
Laura said she was “humbled and honoured” to have won the award.
“To receive recognition for the effort and dedication it takes to launch, manage and oversee a suite of destination websites, including Visit Bristol and Visit Bath feels incredibly special,” she added.
The other nominees in the Digital Marketing Excellence category were Jess Cavendish, Marketing Liverpool, Jill Harlow, Visit Isle of Wight and Rachael Rogers, Go New Forest.
Laura’s next project will be to develop and launch a new Visit Bristol site.
Visit West was formed 2020 to bring together the Destination Bristol, Visit Bath and Meet Bristol & Bath Convention Bureau brands.
Earlier this year it became one of the UK’s first Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEP), meaning it will be able to access more support and training opportunities to find ways to attract new visitors to the region.
Pre-pandemic, the tourism sector supported 45,000 jobs across the region and was worth £2.33bn.
