In March, VisitEngland launched a nationwide search to find England’s biggest fan for an all-expenses paid 70-day self-drive trip around the country in a VW campervan. They have now announced the identity of their new road trip blogger: Rachel Kershaw from Lancashire.
Rachel, 30, “wowed the judges with her passion for England and her zest for life”. She says:
This is the challenge and opportunity I’ve been waiting for! I can’t think of anything better than travelling around England in a vintage camper van and discovering new places. I’m very excited about the trip and am looking forward to setting off next week from somewhere I have always dreamt of visiting, Cornwall.
Rachel will be driving the length and breadth of the country in her newly painted camper van which has been supplied by vintage VW campervan specialist, O’Connors Campers, and staying in The Camping and Caravanning Club’s sites. VisitEngland hope that her regular updates on Facebook and Twitter, blog posts, photographs and video footage, will help inspire the rest of the country to take a holiday at home this year. Her posts will be on the EnjoyEngland blog, on their Facebook page, and the Twitter hashtag for this blogtrip is #faninavan using a dedicated @faninavan account.
VisitEngland’s Chairman and Fan in a Van Judge, Lady Cobham said:
We chose Rachel Kershaw to be our Fan in a Van because her enthusiasm and passion for her home country is truly infectious! During this amazing 10-week trip discovering every corner of England, she will, I’m sure, inspire the Great British Public to take a holiday at home this year and enjoy what we have on offer during this very special year.
Image: VisitEngland
I have nothing against VW (I own a Volkswagen myself), but I can’t help thinking that the promotion might be even more effective if the winner were traveling around England in a vintage British camper van!
I look forward to meeting the Fan in the Van this weekend as I’m heading down to Land’s End to welcome the Olympic torch too.
The trip sounds amazing, would have loved to have done it myself if I had the time!
The way I’ve had it explained to me (by people who work there) is that Visit Britain is responsible for global external tourism into the UK whereas Visit England is focused on internal travel within England for English people. If that makes sense.
Yeah… ish. It markets England domestically, but also to “established overseas markets”. In other words, VisitBritain catches ‘em. VisitEngland cooks ‘em! ;)
A good analogy. I should add that Enjoy England has a beautiful iPhone app that’s actually useful.