VisitBritain is Britain’s national tourism agency, responsible for marketing Britain worldwide and developing Britain’s visitor economy.

Our mission: Building the value of tourism to Britain, working in partnership with the industry and nations and regions to generate additional visitor spend.

Our vision: To inspire the world to explore Britain.

Our strategy: 
1. Inspire travellers from overseas to visit and explore Britain.
2. Deliver a global network to support tourism promotion overseas.
3. Advise Government and the industry on tourism, particularly on issues that affect our global competitiveness.
4. Maximise public investment through partner engagement and commercial activity.

A non-departmental public body, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (www.culture.gov.uk/), we work with partners in the UK and overseas to ensure that Britain is marketed in an inspirational and relevant way around the world. 

In 2011/2012 our grant-in-aid from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will be £26.5 million. Read our funding letter here.

Our partners include government agencies such as UKTI and British Council, airlines and operators, global brands such as Samsung and the English Premier League as well as the official tourism bodies for London, England, Scotland and Wales.

Our priority is to deliver a four-year match-funded global marketing programme which takes advantage of the unique opportunity of the Royal Wedding, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Games.

VisitBritain is to receive a significant sum of additional funding to mount an image campaign in selected priority markets. This will be in addition to the existing four-year, £100 million match-funded marketing campaign we are running to capitalise on the international attention Britain will receive during 2012.  In total this amounts to the largest tourism marketing campaign in our history.

Our objective is to showcase Britain and attract new visitors from the tourism growth markets of Asia and Latin America and to reinvigorate our appeal in core markets such as the USA, France and Germany.

Our consumer, trade and media websites reach a global audience, and we have a staffed presence in 21 overseas markets – those that offer the best immediate return and best future prospects for Britain. Collectively, these markets account for around three quarters of inbound tourism spend.

We use a range of traditional and innovative marketing approaches including brand and tactical advertising, digital and social media, press and PR activity, and working with travel trade intermediaries. We operate a network of online shops for visitors to Britain. www.visitbritainshop.com allows tourists from all over the world to book UK and London attractions, sightseeing tours and travel tickets prior to travelling, in their local language and currency. Customers benefit from being able to plan their holiday in advance and avoiding queues whilst in Britain.

We also have a statutory advisory role, providing analysis and advice on the opportunities for, and the barriers to inbound tourism growth. In addition we provide research, market intelligence and analysis to inform the British tourism industry.

According to ‘The contribution of VisitBritain’ published by Deloitte in March 2010, we make a difference to the UK visitor economy in three key ways:

1. We inject over £1 billion of revenue into the economy every year through the additional visitor spend directly and indirectly generated by our international marketing and our commercial activities.
2. Our export platforms and business services achieve economies of scale of around £159 million, significantly reducing costs for many of our partners and saving public money.
3. We help enhance Britain’s overall image as a country in which to work, invest and do business, thus contributing to the wider economy.

These three effects combine to create an overall contribution of around £1 billion. Read the full report to find out more.