Hardly a weekend goes by without a journalist or influencer staying over in Bristol or Bath for a travel feature. Indeed, in the busiest seasons, we often have several in the city at once. 

We couldn’t host such a vast number of media visits without the cooperation of our members and your limitless enthusiasm for offering a complimentary room, meal, ticket, experience, etc. It has led to some exceptional coverage for the members involved. 

If you’ve never hosted a journalist but would like to, here are a few things you might like to know. 

How we organise press trips

We carry out credibility checks by asking journalists/influencers to complete a media form stating that they have a firm commission for their feature, when/where it will appear and that appropriate coverage will be provided in return for any complimentary experiences. 

We host journalists from the UK and internationally and are constantly promoting Bristol to the media team at VisitBritain/VisitEngland to ensure we’re working with the best writers nationally and overseas. In fact, a recent email from our media colleagues thanked us for providing a “continuous pipeline of news to VisitBritain”. 

We know that there are times you may be fully booked, or maybe you just don’t think a particular media opportunity is the right one for your business. Don’t worry if you have to say ‘no’ sometimes; there’ll always be other chances to get involved. 

Person climbing the rigging at Brunel's SS Great Britain
Image - Go Aloft! at Brunel's SS Great Britain 

Some top tips on how to be included 

  • Ask us about the Visit Bristol Media Pass. We issue this to all authorised journalists staying in the city to allow them complimentary access to the attractions and tours on the pass during their stay. If you’re already featured on there, ensure your front-of-house staff know so they recognise it when it’s presented. If you’re not included and think you should be, let us know. 
  • If you are contacted directly by a blogger or journalist…and are unsure about working with them, you can call and discuss it with us. We may know of their work, or our colleagues at VisitBritain/VisitEngland may have worked with them before and could offer insight. We may also be able to add more to their trip by providing a media pass. 
  • If you know you have a journalist visiting, alert the staff that they might encounter while they are staying with you. Journalists and bloggers have the potential to influence many thousands of future visitors, so we want them to see your business and the city at its best, and represent it as positively as possible. 
  • When hosting influencers and bloggers, consider following them from your business social media accounts and interact with their posts about your business. It can encourage further engagement from the content creator and increase the reach of their posts which are promoting your business. 
  • Press previews, hard hat tours or exclusive interviews - journalists love to get a new or different angle on things ahead of everyone else, so if you have ideas for making that happen, we’d love to hear them. 
  • Keep up-to-date with which journalists we’ve hosted, and the resulting coverage by reading our monthly media reports. 
  • Tell us your markets - let us know which inbound audiences you are looking to attract. We’ll keep this in mind when scheduling visits.