Nick de Bois CBE, the chairman of Britain’s national tourism agency VisitBritain, is set to visit Japan on a four-day trip, putting Britain’s tourism offer in the spotlight in the run-up to Osaka Expo 2025.
Mr de Bois will be visiting Tokyo as well as the UK Pavilion site at Osaka, meeting with UK Government colleagues and Embassy officials, travel industry representatives and media to harness the opportunities to promote Britain as a visitor destination.
Speaking ahead of his visit, taking place from 11-to-14 September, his first to Japan as Chairman of VisitBritain, Mr de Bois said:
“I am delighted to be visiting Tokyo and Osaka in the run up to Expo 2025 and to be banging the drum for Britain as a visitor destination. I am looking forward to meeting with our key travel trade partners, who are so important to us, hearing first-hand on the motivations and trends driving outbound travel from Japan, boosting recovery from this incredibly important visitor market.
“This visit is also a valuable and timely opportunity to highlight the importance of our Japanese visitors and how we can harness the upcoming Expo to promote travel to Britain, showcase our welcome and tell our story about all the great reasons to book a trip.”
The visit builds on VisitBritain’s wider work in Japan, from its trade engagement with industry to promote the latest tourism products on offer, getting those on the itineraries of future visitors, to hosting press trips for Japanese media to come and experience more of Britain.
VisitBritain will also be sharing its latest plans for its upcoming ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ campaign, rolling out from early 2025. The campaign is harnessing the powerful draw of screen tourism to inspire more visitors from Japan to choose Britain, discover more and stay longer, driving visitor spending into more local destinations. Latest research by VisitBritain shows that among Japanese travellers who are considering visiting the UK, 70% are interested in visiting film and TV locations during their trip.
VisitBritain’s latest forecasts show visits from Japan to the UK are continuing to build back. It estimates 299,000 visits from Japan to the UK this year, up 33% on 2023 Japanese visitors are forecast to spend £351 million on their trips to the UK this year, up 44% on 2023.
VisitBritain’s research also shows that airline routes and seat capacity from Japan are showing continued recovery and flight bookings are building back. VisitBritain’s forecast shows that visits by Japanese visitors to the UK are set return to 2019 levels by 2026 and spending by 2025.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- For destination inspiration for travel to Britain please visit: www.visitbritain.com
- For destination assets for Britain please visit: assets.visitbritain.org
