VisitBritain Launches ‘Come See...

Campaign highlights wild coastlines, countryside adventures and vibrant cities

VisitBritain, the national tourism agency for Great Britain, is inviting travellers from the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries to ‘come see things differently’ by showcasing experiences only found in Britain.

The campaign uses a mix of inspiring destination content and short films showcasing Britain's 'wild coastlines’, drawing attention to seaside locations within a few hours' reach of major city centres; 'countryside adventures' promoting the small country's diverse landscapes, and 'vibrant cities’ highlighting Britain’s bustling urban life.

The campaign has been developed based on VisitBritain’s research into motivations for travel today, where discovering new and surprising experiences is high on the wish list of its target markets, and is a progression from VisitBritain’s ‘Spilling the tea on Great Britain’ campaign, which launched earlier in 2023.

VisitBritain will continue to work with its premier trade partner Wego to expand the campaign's reach throughout 2024 and encourage travel bookings for the upcoming winter and spring seasons.

The recent introduction of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme, combined with the region’s strong airline connections to the UK, is set to further enhance the ease of travel for GCC nationals visiting Britain. The ETA will cost £10 and allow visitors to visit the UK multiple times over a two-year period.

Qatar is the first country to move on to the ETA scheme and Qatari nationals can now apply and will require an ETA to travel to the UK on or after 15 November 2023.

From 1 February 2024, the scheme will be introduced for nationals of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The latest statistics show that from January to June 2023 there were 411,000 visits from the GCC to the UK with those visitors spending £945 million. Flight bookings from the Middle East to the UK have been showing strong recovery and are currently tracking at around 93% of 2019 levels.

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VisitBritain deputy director, APMEA CNEA, Carol Madisson said: “The GCC is an incredibly important tourism market for Britain and we are delighted to launch this new phase of our major brand campaign, to drive urgency for GCC travellers to visit now, while showcasing the breadth of exciting experiences and destinations across Britain.

"As well as inspiring international visitors to discover more of Britain’s nations and regions we’re working with industry partners in the GCC to convert that desire to visit into confirmed bookings for travel now. ”

For more information, visit www.visitbritain.org