In early April we received the provisional IPS visitor statistics for the full year 2011 and once again France and Germany were the top two source markets for Britain in volume last year: At 3.62 million visits from France were static and from Germany they were down -2.4% to 2.93 million. Looking at spend the US was still in the lead but Germany follows in second place with £1.25 billion last year (+4.5%) and France in third with £1.63 billion (+1.8%). From both markets business visits were up, holiday visits down. If you are interested in more detailed figures you can find them on our corporate website.

It probably won’t have escaped your notice that today is exactly 100 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Here in London we’re delighted to see the many different ways that VisitBritain offices around the world are marking the milestone.

Time to resume my haphazard journey around Britain, and if you missed those on Wales or Scotland it is not too late to have a read! This time however it is off to the south west corner of England.

The 16 March saw the launch of the GREAT Britain campaign in India. A frantic few months of preparation, working in partnership with FCO, UKTI and the British Council culminated in Britain being named partner country at the India Today Leadership Conclave, India’s answer to the larger-scale but similar collection of world leaders at Davos. Politicians, business leaders, sports persons, entertainers, thinkers, statesmen were all well represented.

....literally! It's been a busy couple of weeks here as our advertising debuts across the US and Canada...