SALISBURY is being promoted as one of the top romantic heritage cities to visit in the country in a nationwide campaign backed by VisitEngland.

The city - just one of seven in the country to be part of the campaign - will feature in the Guardian, the Daily Mail and Classic Fm in addition to a range of social media and online marketing.

The £500,000 campaign will centre around ten top reasons to visit the city and include a competition to win a weekend package involving a stay at the Milford Hotel, private tours of Stonehenge (with Spire Travel), and Salisbury Cathedral, afternoon tea at the Fisherton Mill, an evening at the theatre and personal wine-tasting with Cambridge Wine Merchants.

VisitWiltshire marketing manager Fiona Errington said: “The competition package aims to give people a flavour of what they can do in the city.

“We want people to think ‘wow, I could go to Salisbury and do all of that’.

“We need to give people reasons to visit here – young people living in London, for example, are not aware of how much we have to offer.”

With the launch in time to capture the inspiration of couples before Valentine’s Day, organisers say the city has much to offer those in love all through the year.

Chief executive of VisitWiltshire David Andrews said: “Salisbury has so much to offer, such as our rich history and heritage, a great range of quality accommodation, fantastic independent shopping and some of the best festivals, arts and culture in the country.

“This is the first time the city has ever featured in a national campaign of this kind and we are very excited about having secured Salisbury as one of only seven cities in the campaign – it’s a great opportunity for us to raise awareness of Salisbury outside the county.”

Around 150 Salisbury members of VisitWiltshire will be included in a motivational piece of print themed around the top ten reasons to visit and to be distributed in response to the national and regional campaign.

In addition, 15 Salisbury members have signed-up as a campaign partner with VisitWiltshire, with the latter matching every pound put in by their partners/members and VisitEngland adding four times the amount that Salisbury achieves.

VisitWiltshire will also be producing a new Salisbury app as part of the campaign.

The six other romantic heritage cities are Bath, Chester, London, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and York.

The campaign is the first of four to be launched by VisitEngland this year and will run for three years.

Linking in with VisitEngland’s ‘staycation’ theme, the remaining campaigns are around rural escapes, active outdoors and coastal escapes, with Wiltshire featuring in the first two.

* Any Salisbury business wanting to be a campaign partner should contact fionaerrington@visitwiltshire.co.uk * A two-minute video on Salisbury and Stonehenge is to be promoted via social media websites and the VisitEngland website. VisitWiltshire is currently seeking a Salisbury band to provide the backing music to the piece. Any bands interested in providing “lively and pacey” music for the video are welcome to email Mr Andrews for more details at davidandrews@visitwiltshire.co.uk