Gateway Gatwick | Itineraries and guides

I was brought in as a content expert and copywriter to support the creation of a series of themed itineraries to inspire international visitors to spend more time in the area around Gatwick, rather than travel directly to London or Brighton, the next time they arrive at Gatwick. The itineraries were also designed to provide time-specific entertainment ideas for visitors on connecting flights or affected by delays. The content is currently published in the Discover Local pages of Gatwick Airport’s website.

The themes were chosen to appeal to key audiences identified at the research stage, and filled with product from across the destinations involved; the goal was to achieve a fair geographical spread while prioritising product that’s easy to reach and open year-round. We also wanted to include product to appeal to first-, second- and even third-time visitors to the UK.

I conceptualised 14 themed and timed itineraries, wrote all but two of them and helped source images to accompany. Due to a lack of guidance on how the itineraries would be used, I designed them to be as flexible as possible.

Each product description works as a stand-alone entry – a ‘building block’ – that can be pulled apart and repurposed for distribution across multiple channels, including print brochures, free downloads, listicles, blogs, itineraries and on social media. They were also intended to be made available to other organisations connected to Gatwick, such as car hire firms, public transport operators and even other airports.

At the end of the project, I originated ideas for further content development, such as a comprehensive multi-channel forward plan including social media, itineraries for influencers and press, and podcasts or video interviews with the passionate people behind the tourism products.

The content uses simplified British English and assumes no prior product knowledge from the international audience. To give the content a longer shelf-life, I included only top-level transport options, no dates, and pointers to long-term, reliable sources of information such as the attraction and DMO websites.