News story

GREAT campaign launches in Rio de Janeiro

2016 Olympic host city celebrates best of British

From:
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Published
9 March 2012
This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Prince Harry on his first official visit to Brazil, will launch at Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro today along with Culture Secretary .

The event will celebrate the close links between Brazil and the UK and will encourage more people to visit, study and do business in Britain. It comes after launches in New York and Los Angeles and before the campaign heads to New Delhi, Melbourne and Tokyo.

As part of the launch, stars from the world of British rugby and Brazilian beach volleyball will take part in a GREAT sports day on Flamengo Beach. Wayne Morris and Adriana Behar will be leading workshops for local children in rugby which will be an Olympic sport for the first time in 2016, and beach volleyball in which the Brazilians are specialists.

Brazil is one of the UK鈥檚 key target markets for tourism. Britain is the tenth most visited destination by Brazilians and it鈥檚 hoped the UK could be welcoming an extra 100,000 visits a year from Brazil by 2020. The GREAT campaign is a key driver to encourage more visitors to UK shores driving growth and spend.

Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt said: 鈥淎s the next Olympic host city Rio de Janeiro is a fantastic place to showcase all that is GREAT about Britain. Passing on the Olympic baton to them after 2012 will be an honour and I hope we can build on the close relationships already forged by inspiring more people to do sport, more visitors to holiday and study in the UK, and more companies to do business in Britain.鈥�

Notes to Editors

  1. is an international campaign to maximise the tourism and business opportunities of the UK hosting the 2012 Games. It involves representatives from across the political spectrum and non-government partners.

  2. Copies of VisitBritain鈥檚 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 at the .听

  3. VisitBritain鈥檚 campaign will target nine countries worldwide, with adverts appearing in 14 key cities: 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. For further information about VisitBritain鈥檚 campaign please contact David Leslie on 0207 578 1141 / 07880563476.

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Updates to this page

Published 9 March 2012