CorpComms Magazine

National tourism agency VisitBritain has launched a league table of the nation's most popular attractions on Facebook.

Staffordshire theme park Alton Towers is currently heading up the table with more than 3,000 check-ins today. London is a dominant player with Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and the Tate Modern also featuring in the top ten.

Football is also well championed in the league, with seven stadiums, including the Emirates, Old Trafford, Wembley and Anfield, sporting places amongst the top 20 favourite attractions.

The agency is taking advantage of the social network's new location tracking tool 'Facebook places', which allows visitors to sites and attractions to check-in virtually online. It is hoped tourists will ultimately be able to check-in at more than 50,000 key locations across the country.

The application was created by social technology developers Betapond and new features will be added to the campaign throughout the coming year.

Richard Delevan, managing director of Betapond, said: 'We are creating a 'global guest book' for international tourists to share their experiences and to recommend attractions to their own friends and family. It's a beautifully simple but effective way for VisitBritain to harness the power of the 250,000 tourists that interact with their Facebook page on a daily basis.'

Justin Reid, head of digital and social for VisitBritain, said: 'It is crucial that VisitBritain continues to embrace new ways to build relationships between international tourists and all UK attractions. We operate in a highly competitive market and Facebook Places offers us a smart and cost effective way of engaging directly with overseas tourists. We will be working closely with all tourist destinations to show them how they can market themselves on the platform and create viral recommendations.'

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