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020/12
9 February 2012

The New York Subway, Paris Metro, and 100 taxis across Delhi will be draped with the Union flag and a series of GREAT images as part of a huge drive to encourage more international visitors to the UK.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt today launched Britain鈥檚 biggest ever tourism campaign, which will be rolled out in New York from Monday.聽 It will see the inside and outside of a New York subway train wrapped in the GREAT branding, and adverts blitzed across key transit hubs including Grand Central and Stamford stations.

痴颈蝉颈迟叠谤颈迟补颈苍鈥檚 GREAT campaign aims to attract an extra 4.6 million extra visitors to the UK over the next four years, securing an additional 拢2.3 billion in visitor spend.聽

The campaign will target nine countries worldwide, with adverts appearing in 14 key cities around the world: Beijing, Berlin, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Mumbai, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto. Around 70 per cent of the population in each of the target cities will see the advertising on billboards, TV, or in the cinema.

Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt said:

鈥淲e are taking the fight for the tourist pound right to our competitors鈥� doorsteps, with a sales assault on the 14 biggest and most lucrative tourism markets around the world. Right across the world, there will be no escape from the message that Britain is great.鈥�

痴颈蝉颈迟叠谤颈迟补颈苍鈥檚 Chief Executive, Sandie Dawe said:

鈥淭his 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鈥檚 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.

鈥淲e 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 拢17 billion in foreign exchange to the UK economy each year and has potential to do so much more. 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.鈥�

The international reach of the campaign will be strengthened by the announcement today of a global partnership between VisitBritain and Yahoo!, one of the world鈥檚 most visited homepages. This aims to drive over five million views of VisitBritain content on the Yahoo! network and help drive 3.5 million visits to 痴颈蝉颈迟叠谤颈迟补颈苍鈥檚 own online platforms.

Rich Riley, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Yahoo! EMEA said:

鈥淲e are really excited to have been chosen as 痴颈蝉颈迟叠谤颈迟补颈苍鈥檚 digital display partner. This will be their largest ever online campaign and Yahoo! has a strong track record of delivering original global media campaigns with seamless digital content and advertising. 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. 2012 is the year to visit Britain and we鈥檙e about to show people why.鈥�

Notes to Editors

1. Copies of the GREAT ads being used in each country, along with a copy of the television commercial being aired across the globe and other GREAT material are available for use on website.
2. For further information please contact Emma Marsh at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 020 7211 6271/07919 693 320.
3. The initiative is an international campaign to maximise the tourism and business opportunities of the UK hosting the 2012 Games.
4. For further information about 痴颈蝉颈迟叠谤颈迟补颈苍鈥檚 campaign please contact David Leslie on 0207 578 1141 / 07880 563 476.

Press Enquiries: 020 7211 2210
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