VisitLondon goes ahead with September ad push

VisitLondon, the capital’s tourist board, is pushing ahead with a poster and radio campaign promoting events in London this September.

The campaign, which is due to break later this month, was in the planning stage when suicide bombers struck in London. In the wake of the attacks, the focus of the campaign has been “tweaked” slightly to concentrate on attracting more visitors from the South-east of England, after research showed that many Britons harbour concerns about visiting London.

However, a spokeswoman for VisitLondon says that some of the “London in September” posters will appear in the South-west of the country, while radio spots have been booked in Scotland.

VisitLondon says it is still in talks with other agencies about presenting a united front in the marketing of the capital.

When the VisitLondon ads break, there could be as many as three “pro-London” ads running in the capital, and the tourist body says it is talking to other groups, including its parent body the GLA and the Evening Standard, both of which are already running poster campaigns in London.

Other initiatives to help London’s tourist industry recover include cheap offers on train tickets later in the year, in order to woo back visitors.

A CNN/Time poll by TNS in the aftermath of the failed July 21 attacks revealed that one-third of people in the UK and France had been put off visiting London – more than revealed by VisitLondon’s research.