"Meanwhile in Britain" will highlight to US travellers everything they’ve missed over the past two years, as well as the quintessential and recognisable features of British culture.
Key targets for BA and VisitBritain will be "experience-driven travellers"; together, they have enlisted several handpicked "tastemakers" to represent different aspects of the British experience.
These include Jonathan Heaf from private members’ club Soho House, Aisha and Oreoluwa Ayoada, co-founders of art platform Yellowzine, Blackbook Winery co-founder Lynsey Verrillo and BA pilot Matthew Lindley.
They will provide tips and recommend experiences spanning food, the great outdoors and British icons, all putting a modern spin on the UK tourism experience.
Suggestions include visits to a vegan butchery and diner in London and Coventry’s FarGo independent business community, or taking on the Dare Skywalk at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium.
The campaign will run across social media, via programmatic display and video, direct partnerships, and other direct video services.
VisitBritain executive vice-president of the Americas, Gavin Landry, said: "We want people to book a trip right now to come and explore our diverse culture, heritage and offerings across our nations and regions.
"The landmark events this year, including Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrating 70 years on the throne, ’Unboxed’, the series of 10 UK-wide events showcasing the country’s creativity, and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, offer once-in-a-lifetime experiences visitors can only have this year.
"Working with a partner like British Airways amplifies our reach as we drive recovery from Covid, turning the inspiration to visit into bookings."
Tom Stevens, director of brand and customer experience at British Airways, added: "As we recover from the global pandemic, we are ready to be the airline that reconnects Britain with the world and the world with Britain – and are delighted to partner with VisitBritain in our shared goal of encouraging visitors to Britain."
The US is the UK’s largest and most valuable inbound market; it was worth £4.2 billion in 2019 and accounted for 15% of all inbound spending. In 2019, there were 4.5 million visits from the US, 11% of all inbound visits to the UK that year.
Scheduled US-UK airline capacity, as of March 2022, was 42% behind March 2019 – the healthiest month-for-month difference since the onset of the pandemic, the partners said.
Citing figures from Oxford Economics, they added visits from the US to the UK are forecast to exceed pre-Covid levels by 2024. Longer-term, BA and VisitBritain expect visits to increase by 30% and spend by 62% between 2019 and 2030.
