Britain’s Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt launched VisitBritain’s largest ever image campaign last week.

The £25 million image campaign will add to the £100 million match-funded tactical campaign already being run by VisitBritain with commercial partners such as British Airways, easyJet, Hilton Worldwide, Radisson Edwardian and STA Travel to deliver the agency’s biggest marketing push, with an aim to drive an extra 4.6 million visitors to the UK over the next four years, stimulating an additional £2.3 billion in international spend.

The national tourism agency’s overseas advertising offensive will be seen across 14 major cities in nine key inbound tourism markets.

The image blitz will run until March next year, with activity being undertaken in major cities in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan and the US.

According to the agency, the campaign will 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.

“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,” said Hunt.

Yahoo! has been chosen as VisitBritain’s digital display partner.

The international reach of the campaign will be strengthened by the announcement of a global partnership with Yahoo!. That will guarantee over five million views of VisitBritain content on the Yahoo! network and help drive 3.5 million click-throughs to VisitBritain’s own online platforms.

Buoyant Year

VisitBritain has reported that 30.6 million overseas visitors came to the UK in 2011, a three percent rise in overseas arrivals from 2010. The year sees a record number of holiday visitors and a record year for visitor spending.

With December’s arrival figures up two percent, 2011 finished on a high and show that it was a year of positive gains for British tourism, with an overall increase of 800,000 visitors across the year.

Visitors spent a record £17.8 billion while here, up five percent on 2010 and pointing towards an average spend of £580 per visit and an increase of two percent on the previous record. The increase in spend has been helped along by the pound being more favourable than it has been for many years.

2011 also saw a record number of holiday visits, with just under 12 million overseas residents choosing to come to Britain for a holiday and strengthening gains made in this market over the last few years.