A £25 million ‘Great’ campaign, a major advertising offensive by VisitBritain, will hit 14 major cities in nine key inbound tourism markets, and reach an estimated audience of 90 million.

Running until March, the image-boosting initiative complements a £100 million tactical campaign by VisitBritain’s commercial partners and aims to attract 4.6 million additional visitors to the UK over the next four years, stimulating an additional £2.3 billion in international spend.

The focus of the campaign is to show the world what makes the UK such a ‘Great’ place to visit at a time when high-profile events such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Cultural Olympiad, Torch Relay and the London 2012 Games are taking place, a statement from the British Tourist Authority said.

Launching the campaign in central London, culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said: “With the eyes of the world focused on the UK this year, we want to ensure that they see what it is that is so special about this Great country of ours. 2012 will see a year of festivities taking place, with global reach possible on a level never seen before for British tourism.”

Sandie Dawe, CEO, VisitBritain, said: “This campaign will allow us to promote Britain in 14 of the key global economic powerhouse cities where our adverts will be seen by over two-thirds of our target audience. That means nearly 90 million people will be focusing on all that is Great about coming here for their next holiday.”

“The eye-catching images reflect Britain’s tourism appeal, featuring our rich history and culture, our spectacular countryside and coastline, our thriving music scene and our wonderful shopping, which our research tells us are the main draws for overseas visitors,” Dawe said.

“We have long recognised that 2012 will present us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a solid tourism legacy, one that will help us to grow a sector which already contributes over £17 billion in foreign exchange to the UK economy each year and has potential to grow. The more overseas visitors we can entice to visit Britain as a result of this campaign the more jobs the industry can sustain right across the country,” she said.

“The international reach of the campaign will be strengthened by the announcement of a global partnership with Yahoo!, one of the world’s most visited homepages – a collaboration that will guarantee over 5 million views of VisitBritain content on the Yahoo! network and help drive 3.5 million click-throughs to VisitBritain’s own online platforms,” Rich Riley, senior vice president and managing director, Yahoo!, EMEA, said.

“Our campaign for VisitBritain will be as individual as those consumers who interact with it – helping demonstrate why we all think Britain is so great. VisitBritain has partnered with us so that they can potentially engage with our 400 million Yahoo! users across Germany, France, India, China, Australia, Japan, Brazil, USA and Canada,” Riley added.

Along with the Great message being broadcast across the world, passengers arriving at airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, London City and Manchester, which account for 75 per cent of all UK air passengers, will be greeted by campaign posters reinforcing the overarching message of Britain being a welcoming and friendly tourism destination. – TradeArabia News Service