For more years than I care to remember, I’ve been a great believer in two things: First, there’s a huge untapped potential for customized Britain travel that’s on every travel agent’s doorstep. Second, you as a travel advisor are best placed to find it and with my help, to develop it into a high yield result.

To illustrate the product potential of Britain, all you need to do is click on Britain Insider to get to back issues of my columns. You may not have time to read each one, but if you can spare 10 minutes or so, a thoughtful read of the subject headlines will illustrate the huge variety of bright ideas that can be worked into bespoke tour proposals, which many of your contacts will have never seen before.

If you’re in any doubt as to who might be interested in these inspired suggestions, I’ve listed some of the niche markets where you may already have the right connections. I can guarantee they will give you a warm reception to these new ways of looking at their old friend Britain. Take a few moments to check the list, make your choice and let’s start talking.

Stately Homes and Garden Tours

Check out your local garden clubs; the nearest Arboretum or Botanical Garden; societies specializing in orchids, roses, dahlias, chrysanthemums, herbs, lilies, camellias and rhododendrons; a group of master gardeners looking for an outstanding, value-added itinerary linked to one of our Royal Horticultural Societies; manufacturers of garden equipment and garden statuary who could co-sponsor a tour; a landscape gardener or TV, radio, newspaper or magazine gardening personality who could make a great Pied Piper; historic houses and museums interested in architecture, conservation, historic preservation and their gardens; flower arranging societies interested in making a cathedral flower festival or event organized by the U.K.’s National Society of Flower Arranging Societies;

Girls Getaways

Other markets you can consider are friends of yours who would enjoy shopping and foodie tours to London and Paris; textile tours for those interested in quilting, embroidery, knitting and needlework; Shop ‘n’ Ship trips to the world’s capital of ceramics, aka Stoke on Trent; antiques and collectable fairs and London markets; Shop ‘n’ Sip tea room tours especially in the Cotswolds;

Masterpiece and Literary Tours

Doc Martin, Victoria, Jane Austen, Wolf Hall, Harry Potter and Mathilda; Murder and Mystery with The Great Detectives Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Inspector Morse and Lewis, Father Brown, Angela Raisin, Inspector Barnaby, Foyles War, Dick Francis and Sherlock Holmes.

Most of the interest in these On Location visits lies within your own anglophile database and to expand the potential you should also consider: Your Public Broadcasting Station; the local branches of United For Libraries which includes Friends of Libraries USA; a radio talk show host for one of the U.K.’s top literary festivals co-sponsored by a local bookstore; English literature teachers, continuing education colleges, university lecturers and their students and the English Speaking Union;

The Visual and Performing Arts

Draw a 20-mile circle around where you live and start plotting on the map: Major art galleries and museums noting their specializations; do the same for any privately-owned smaller galleries; ceramic collector’s groups and china painting clubs; art colleges for “have sketch pad will travel” programs; continuing education colleges offering courses on water color painting, pottery or drama; organizations that might have a specific interest in William Morris, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the Pre-Raphaelites; clubs interested in embroidery, needlework and quilting; arts festivals and their friends groups; friends and patrons of theatres and opera companies; ballet schools and dance academies; and amateur operatic and drama clubs.

To show how theory can be converted into reality, based on the requests I’ve received in the past few weeks I’ve created itineraries for Masterpiece On Location tours for two Public Broadcasting Stations, a Tea Rooms and Treasure Houses tour, a fashion tour linked to the Christian Dior Exhibition at the V&A, London; a group of Methodist ministers on a pastoral tour of England; a London and Liverpool Rock ‘n’ Roll tour; an Islay Whisky Festival; a hiking tour to Scotland; and a reunion for a family whose ancestral castle is in the Lake District.

These travel advisors have found the untapped potential. Why don’t you follow their example?  It’s out there and the U.K. can deliver the right travel experience.