On 9 February Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, officially launched Visit Britain's £25 million image campaign, as it rolls out across 14 major cities in nine key inbound tourism markets, reaching an estimated audience of some 90 million people.

Running until March 2013, activity is being undertaken in major cities in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan and the US with the aim of enhancing overseas perceptions of the UK as a major tourism destination and helping drive economic growth.
 
New York commuters will see subway trains wrapped in the Union Jack and Grand Central Station filled with GREAT images. Subway routes in the city - New York is the largest source of US visitors to the UK - will also be lined with Britain branding and copies of the New York Metro newspaper will be covered with an invitation to come to choose Britain for their next holiday.

In Delhi, GREAT billboards will line the main routes in the city, 100 GREAT branded taxis will be driving on the streets and the newspapers will be full of our images. Residents in Rio and Sao Paulo will see GREAT images across the sides of buildings, lining key city streets. Our invitation to visit Britain will also be wrapped around their Metro newspaper.

Meanwhile France, the UK's largest source market for inbound arrivals, is also being targeted as part of the campaign. Ads will be on display in metro stations and Franklin D. Roosevelt metro station will be dressed as an art gallery of GREAT images for all to enjoy. Ads will be also seen by millions of cinemagoers on movie screens across France, as well as in cinemas in India, Brazil and Germany.

Along with the GREAT image effort overseas, passengers arriving at airports across the UK - including the likes of Heathrow, Gatwick, London City and Manchester - will see GREAT posters on display when they get off the plane and as they travel onwards through the airport. This is to help reinforce a sense of a warm welcome and help improve perceptions of the UK's overall friendliness.

This campaign enables Visit Britain to promote Britain in some of the key global economic powerhouse cities making this the largest ever image campaign that we've undertaken, with a view to capitalising on an incredible year of celebration across the country.

For more information and images of this campaign, please click here to go to the Visit Britain website.