A CAMPAIGN aimed at keeping Bradford’s tourist attractions in people’s minds during lockdown has been hailed as a success.

Bradford Council’s tourism team Visit Bradford, using the hashtag #VisitBradfordLater, have seen their online visitor numbers soar in the past few months, despite visitor and tourist attractions remaining closed due the pandemic.

Visits to the Visit Bradford website have increased by 108 per cent and their online blogs have been particularly popular, with an increase of 2,000 per cent in the number of people viewing them.

Visit Bradford’s social media accounts have also seen an increase in the number of impressions, with impressions on Instagram increasing by 108 per cent and Twitter increasing by 61 per cent.

TripAdvisor ranks Bradford's most popular tourist attractions

The team have been encouraging locals and visitors from further afield to stay in touch online and remember the good times by using the #VisitBradfordLater.

Follow @VisitBradford on Instagram to see highlights.

As part of the campaign, the team have run a series of successful Instagram Takeover weeks, with highlights so far including, local vegan chef Sonia Sandhu (@Soniaveganchef) with ‘My favourite Bradford’ and how to make Aloo Paratha, a garden tour of National Trust East Riddlesden Hall (@eastriddlesdenhall_nt), a virtual walk around Haworth using social-distancing, by a local photographer (@JackHarryBill) as well as well known Bradford photographer Dave Zdanowicz (@DaveZ_UK) sharing his photos.

The latest takeover week has been by The Peace Museum who are running creative challenges with local Bradford artist Nancy Haslam-Chance.

There is now also a weekly email newsletter that goes out to over 17,350 recipients. The newsletter contains the latest information and inspiring things for people to do and join in with across the district during the coronavirus pandemic. People can sign up to receive these by visiting the website at www.visitbradford.com

The Visit Bradford website has seen a massive increase in the number of visits with a 108 per cent increase in the number of views, showing that people are still planning future visits and seeking inspiration from the new ‘Days In’ page which has activities for both children and adults to get involved in.

Blog posts on the website include interesting from the Council’s Museums and Galleries Service looking at their online exhibitions including the popular Belle Vue Studio project, also content from local creative artists and recipes for curry from the district’s restaurants. The latest blog celebrates the Seven Wonders of the City via poetry through the eyes of local actor and writer Kamal Kaan. Since last year there was a 2,000 per cent increase in the number of people viewing the blog posts.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “We’ve some great places for tourists and local’s to visit across the whole of our district.

"It has been a real shame that people have not been able to visit them this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but it is still vitally important that people continue to stay at home as much as possible and not congregate in large groups if we are to control the spread of this deadly infection.

"The message of the campaign is #VisitBradfordLater and looking at the numbers of people visiting the website and engaging on social media it looks like that’s what people are planning to do.

“As soon as it’s safe for people to visit the wonderful places and attractions that is what we will be encouraging people to do, but for the meantime people should continue to work on their plans to #VisitBradfordLater.”

People can keep in touch online by following @visitBradford on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn for business posts and visiting www.visitbradford.com where they can sign up to received e-newsletters.