SHAKESPEARE may have been attracting tourists to his home town for more than two centuries but travel experts have now listed Stratford as a top ‘new’ destination.
As the town celebrates the legacy of its famous son on the 400th anniversary of his death, Lonely Planet has named Stratford as a major attraction for visitors in 2016 in its New in Travel guide.
The free eBook, available to download at www.lonelyplanet.com/newintravel2016, which features 31 of the best new openings and attractions across the globe in 2016.
Stratford is listed alongside attractions including an active volcano in Nicaragua; Japan’s new bullet train; newly introduced lions in Rwanda; an art installation at Uluru in Australia; and the world’s first Dr Seuss Museum in the USA.
Other destinations listed closer to home include the £260million extension of the Tate Modern in London due to open to in June, as well as Surf Snowdonia in Wales, the world’s first inland surf lagoon.
Stratford’s inclusion comes hot on the heels of being named by Fodor’s Travel, a leading name in travel recommendations for almost 80 years, in its 25 highlights which should be on every traveller’s radar in 2016.
Stratford has plenty planned to commemorate the bard’s anniversary.
They include a re-imagination by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust of the Bard’s final home, New Place, and the opening to the public of the room at King Edward’s School where he might first have put pen to paper as a boy scholar.
And the Royal Shakespeare Company will lift the curtain on a major new permanent exhibition in the Swan Theatre, while organisers of the annual birthday parade in April are promising an event to remember.
