Tourism minister and Faversham and Mid-Kent MP Hugh Robertson joined forces with Sandra Matthews-Marsh, chief executive of Visit Kent, to launch the My Kent Big Weekend 2013 celebrations.
This year than 123 attractions and visitor experiences offered 18,000 free tickets for a weekend showcasing the county’s tourism and leisure businesses, which contribute more than £3.4 billion to the Kent economy each year.
The tickets, two per Kent household, were available through online ballots, which received a record 92,000 applications this year.
And VisitEngland highlighted the countywide celebrations as a key event during English Tourism Week.
“The My Kent Big Weekend has become a hallmark of the county’s spring calendar but it is the first time we have had snow on the ground,” said Sandra.
“Yet lots of people headed out and discovered new delights on their doorstep. And we are particularly grateful to our many event media partners who kept our ticket holders well informed about the travel and traffic conditions in different areas of our large county.
“An important part of the My Kent Big Weekend is working with tourism students across the county to help us with our event research and to provide them with valuable work experience.
“Our early results show that My Kent Big Weekend 2013 was a big success. Ninety-one per cent of people who have responded so far said they would recommend the attraction they visited to friends and family; 80 per cent are planning to visit the attraction again; and 82 per cent said they would visit more Kent attractions as a result of their My Kent Big Weekend experience.”