Eccentric UK targets tourists

The new campaign features surreal images

Tourism chiefs are hoping to reverse a sharp drop in visitor numbers with a series of television advertisements emphasising British eccentricity.

The television adverts - which portray a series of traditional British images with a surreal twist - mark a sharp contrast with previous attempts to market the UK as a centre of fashion and youth culture.

The adverts include scenes of knights in armour playing tennis, and a Wellington boot-throwing contest.

In the US, the UK tourism industry's most important overseas market, the adverts will also feature a brief appearance from Tony Blair.

"We wanted to capture the imagination of prospective visitors with a distinctive and humorous reminder of Britain's diversity and cultural heritage," said David Quarmby, Chairman of the British Tourist Authority (BTA).

Revenue boost

The television campaign - due to start in a handful of European countries later this week - is part of a wider promotional effort using the slogan "Only in Britain. Only in 2002."

It marks the biggest ever expenditure on television advertising by the tourist industry, hit hard by the 2001 foot and mouth crisis and the 11 September attacks.

The BTA, which is behind the campaign, hopes to attract an extra one million visitors this year, boosting the industry's sales by £500m.

The organisation said the money would help support 13,500 jobs and generate an extra £65m in tax revenues for the government.

2001 setback

The foot-and-mouth crisis and the 11 September attacks caused a slump in visitor numbers last year, triggering a wave of bankruptcies among small tourism-dependent businesses.

Official statistics showed that tourist numbers in October 2001 were 30% down on the same period one year earlier.

In September last year, the BTA estimated that tourism revenues for the year as a whole could fall by as much as £2.5bn.