Record numbers visited Britain this year – and now the Government wants to bring in tourists from China.
Chinese people will be asked to give new names to British landmarks such as Stonehenge and Glastonbury Tour in a bid to attract more Asian tourists.
VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, said that creating Mandarin names for famous sites will give the Chinese greater affinity with Britain – and so encourage more to choose it as a holiday destination.
The marketing push in Asia, which will be conducted over social media, will be announced today alongside figures showing a record number of tourists visited Britain this year.
Just under 20 million people visited the UK between January and July – a seven per cent rise on last year and a new record – spending £11.3 billion, VisitBritain will disclose in its annual report.
Christopher Rodrigues, chairman of VisitBritain, said the record figures were "a tribute to the industry", and forecast tourism to grow six per cent a year until 2020.
Mr Rodrigues will disclose that campaign work undertaken by his organisation since the Olympics in 2012 has generated £1.8 billion extra for the economy.
In part, he will credit the success of the GREAT campaign, which used stars such as David Beckham and Andy Murray to capitalise on the legacy of London 2012, to harnessing the power of social media.
VisitBritain ranks first among "key competitor" nations in number of Twitter followers and third for Facebook fans and followers on Weibo (China's version of Twitter), the agency said. Alongside targeting Asia, it is also preparing a three-year £3 million "Countryside is GREAT" campaign to showcase the British regions.
京公网安备 11010502048770号
