The British Government has recently introduced a new campaign aimed to lure an additional million of visitors every year. The campaign aims to centre around much more than just the upcoming royal wedding and Diamond Jubilee, or the Olympic Games.
It is a fact that London gets less rain than Rome, and its air is cleaner than in San Francisco. The British Government has decided the time has come to turn the country’s reputation around and bring in an additional million of tourists each year. The new campaign is expected to increase the income from the UK’s fifth most profitable industry, but also generate 50,000 new jobs. Many officials believe it is time for the UK to get back on its feet and hopefully, the new marketing campaign will help succeed.
The new strategy is to bring in £2 billion a year on top of current profits from tourism. The Prime minister, David Cameron, explained “the government has joined forces with the private sector to create a marketing fund of more than £100 million to promote our offering abroad”. Obtaining a visa is often tedious and discouraging; the government aims to simplify and speed up the process and reduce the time spent at check-in or passport control. Another great piece of news comes for the tourists who often have to travel great distances to reach the nearest British Embassy to apply for a visa; plans are being drawn to use a mediating embassy to make things easier.
The big events of the upcoming months are already drawing much desired international attention, for example the April Royal Wedding and the 2012 Olympic Games. However, the campaign aims to ascertain a much longer attention span from the wide tourist community; as John Penrose, the tourism minister says, “you can do most things in Britain for 11 to 12 months of the year”. Perhaps it is time for foreign as well as domestic tourist to understand it does not always rain here.