London mayor Boris Johnson has unveiled new plans to recruit around 12,000 city volunteers to welcome and provide travel advice to visitors travelling to the capital for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The 'army' of volunteers would be stationed at airports, mainline rail and Tube stations, major visitor attractions and other key locations to provide information and directions to 2012 tourists, and to complement the work of the 70,000 Olympic volunteers. Johnson said: "In exactly three years, London hosts the world's greatest sporting event which we will turn into a memorable festival of entertainment and fun. Volunteering is a fantastically rewarding and worthwhile activity, as millions of Londoners already know.

"This role is vital, because these volunteers will be London's front line ambassadors. I want to ensure that the warm and friendly welcome they afford our guests, as they point them in the right direction, leaves them feeling they have just spent a wonderful time with a great friend - a friend they will certainly revisit as soon as possible."