A NEW conference – Social Travel Britain 2015 – for travel and tourism businesses and their communications teams was held in Salisbury at the weekend.

The conference featured the first ever UK Social Travel Awards recognising the best digital innovations and social media campaigns in British tourism over the last 12 months.

The new event showcased the best initiatives in digital marketing and social media and address the key issues that are shaping Britain’s digital marketing future.

Conference organiser Mark Frary from Travel Perspective said: “The requirements of successful tourism marketing are unrecognisable from even a few years ago. For many tourist boards and tourism marketers it is also difficult to distinguish between the great opportunities the sharing revolution offers, and the pitfalls.

"Social Travel Britain will bring together the best brains in destination and attraction marketing, with the bloggers and digital innovators who have played integral roles in recent successful campaigns. The conference is about inspiring new ideas, showcasing how storytelling works online, and empowering tourism professionals to tackle the phenomenal change that engaging digitally brings to their roles.”

Social Travel Britain featured sessions such as ‘Blog it and they will come…’ featuring David Coulthard, marketing director of Salisbury Cathedral, looking at bringing a cathedral into the digital age and supporting the 800-year anniversary of Magna Carta.

Delegates, including many of the country’s best travel bloggers, also learned about attractions across Wiltshire.