9 February 2012, 3:10 pm
A multi-million pound international campaign has been launched to entice visitors to the UK. But with the Olympic Games expected to draw the attention of four billion global viewers, is this marketing push money well spent? The dramatic Brecon Beacons, mystical Stonehenge, bonnie Glenfinnan - just a few of the scenic landscapes that are being slapped across the New York subway, draped over Berlin buses, plastered onto the Paris Metro and promoted in 11 other cities around the world. It's the latest wave of GREAT - Britain's biggest ever tourism campaign - which is costing the UK government £125m and aims to attract 4.6 million more visitors, £2.3bn in additional visitor-spend, and £1bn of extra investment over the next four years. Some £25m is being allocated to the new campaign. Organisers say the drive is about converting the anticipated feel-good factor of London 2012 and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee into actual visits to Britain, thereby creating "a solid tourism legacy". But some question whether Britain needs the extra publicity, particularly when billions of eyeballs will be fixed on London and various other British cities in July and August. Stryker McGuire, the US journalist behind the Newsweek article credited with sparking the "Cool Britannia" phenomenon in 1996, thinks the UK is so well known it does not need to have an awareness-raising campaign. "When you advertise Britain in these big cities, you are preaching to the converted," he said. In the 1990s, he said, people were surprised by London, its music and its diversity but now it was not as "fresh". "Just the fact of having the Olympics gives Britain all the publicity it needs," said Mr McGuire, now the London-based senior editor of Bloomberg Markets magazine. "If you were budget-conscious you'd have to ask whether £25m could have been better spent elsewhere."... Read More »
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