To boost inbound tourism from Japan to Britain, national tourism agency VisitBritain hosted UK Tourism Day on 5 June at the UK Pavilion during Osaka Expo 2025.
UK Tourism Day brought together British tourism businesses and destinations with Japanese travel trade, media and UK government colleagues. The suppliers attending included destination management companies, hotels, visitor attractions, airlines and tour operators from across Britain.
Workshops and seminars featured the latest products and experiences on offer, getting those sold in the Japanese market and on to the itineraries of future visitors, driving growth from tourism across the nations and regions.
VisitBritain also showcased its global screen tourism campaign ‘Starring GREAT Britain’, highlighting film-and-tv inspired experiences, showing travel trade and media the real destinations at the heart of the on-screen action.
VisitBritain CEO Patricia Yates said:
“It is great to see British tourism suppliers and Japanese travel trade come together on UK Tourism Day at Osaka Expo 2025, a timely opportunity to put our global screen tourism campaign ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ in the spotlight.
The UK Tourism Day is also a chance to promote our warm welcome, work with the Japanese travel trade to broaden itineraries, compete for visitors and encourage them to explore more of Britain through regional gateways, driving growth from tourism across the nations and regions.”
The event follows the UK National Day on 22 May where VisitBritain showcased ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ at the UK Pavilion, Festival Station event space and during events on UK National Day, encouraging Japanese and international visitors to choose Britain for their next trip and explore more when they visit.
The activity at Expo 2025 builds on VisitBritain’s wider work in Japan, from its trade engagement with industry to promote the latest tourism products on offer to hosting press trips for Japanese media to come and experience more of Britain.
Japan is an important visitor market for the UK. VisitBritain’s latest forecast estimates 389,000 visits from Japan to the UK this year, up 24% on 2024. Japanese visitors are forecast to spend £433 million on their trips to the UK in 2025, up 30% on 2024.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- For more information about VisitBritain’s ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ campaign and destination inspiration to come and see the real star of the show in 2025 see: https://www.visitbritain.com/en
- VisitBritain’s ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ campaign is part of the UK Government’s GREAT campaign: https://www.greatcampaign.com/
- The full launch film video for Starring GREAT Britain is available at this link on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezrfJus7f3g
