VisitBritain has created a new version of its international travel trade website, complete with a free self-managing directory to help UK tourism businesses drum up foreign trade.

A core feature of the new site enables any UK tourism business to manage its own listing, enabling their company to be searchable and contactable to overseas trade. More than 130 suppliers had signed up to the platform at the time of launch, but its capacity is unlimited.

The new platform has already gone live on all English versions of the trade website – including the US, Canada, Australia, India, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Hong Kong, Netherlands and Scandinavia – while eight other language versions are being rolled out throughout October. These will allow UK attractions to create translated versions of their supplier listings in Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Russian or Chinese (simplified).

Listings can be categorised based on the area of business, as well as the regions of Britain being sold and the company’s location. Firms will also be able to track online traffic to their own website from the VisitBritain directory.

“Providing a free platform for all UK businesses to be featured and promoted was one of our key objectives,” said Russell Knight, international travel trade manager at VisitBritain.

“We’ve now empowered the travel trade to manage their own presence, resulting in greater exposure of their product and itineraries, which, in turn, will bring more visitors to Britain.

“We are calling for the tourism trade to sign up now and take advantage of a platform which will increase your business.”

Businesses wishing to sign up can do so by clicking here.