Bear Grylls and Downton Abbey star in new VisitBritain tourism magazine

VisitBritain has turned to famous adventurer Bear Grylls and smash period drama Downton Abbey to help entice tourists to the UK through its new magazine.

Grylls and Downton Abbey setting Highclere Castle star in the first issue of Imagination – Make Britain Your Own magazine, which aims to showcase why Britain is an ideal place in which to holiday, study and do business. Grylls talks about the benefits of studying in the UK, while there are also profiles on shopping, food and the adventures that await visitors to the British Isles.

The 86-page magazine is available in print and digital formats and has been translated into 10 languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian-Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) giving it a combined global reach in the tens of millions as VisitBritain bids to continue raising Britain’s profile around the world.

“Everything we do is motivated by the goal to add value to the tourism industry, maximising the taxpayers’ investment in tourism and driving economic growth across the nations and regions ensuring that the economic benefits of tourism are felt across the whole of Britain,” said VisitBritain marketing director Joss Croft.

“This magazine provides a valuable marketing tool for VisitBritain and its partners because it puts the spotlight on Britain as a diverse destination that offers something for everyone, from international tourists and students, to investors and international businesses.”

GREAT Britain campaign partners – the British Council, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and UK Trade and Investment – are promoting the magazine in emerging tourism markets including South Korea, Singapore and Mexico, which show strong tourism growth potential but where VisitBritain currently has no physical presence.

International visits to Britain for the first nine months of 2015 have broken previous records according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. There were 27.1m visits to Britain from January to September this year, a 3 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2014.

Spending by international visitors in September was £2.2bn, equalling last year's record spend for the same month. Overall, spending by visitors for the first nine months of 2015 was £16.5bn.