VisitBritain has urged the US president to keep it social when he tours the UK later this week.
Barack Obama is arriving in the country on Thursday April 21 for a three-day visit, during which time he will have lunch with the Queen and meet prime minister David Cameron.
With the US being the UK’s most valuable inbound visitor market – in 2015 2.6 million Americans spent £2.3 billion – the tourism agency is keen to cash in on the increased focus on the UK the visit will generate.
To this end it has urged him to tweet with the hashtag #OMGB during his visit this week.
OMGB stands for ‘Oh my Great Britain’ and is part of the organisation’s Home of Amazing Moments marketing campaign.
The campaign that launched in February corresponds with the UK government’s "Great Britain" campaign, and aims to get the economic benefits of tourism spread across the whole of the UK by promoting the visiting and business opportunities.
Visit Britain’s research shows that 84% of people surveyed in the US had used social media at some stage during their holiday planning.
President Obama has the highest number of Twitter followers and Facebook fans of any world leader, with 73 million followers and 48 million fans respectively.
VisitBritain marketing director Joss Croft said: “President Obama’s visit and the accompanying international media exposure is a fantastic opportunity for us to show people that the UK is packed full of amazing experiences that visitors – including the president – can only get here.”
“We hope he will share these experiences with his millions of social media followers and inspire more people to book a trip to come to the UK and discover their own amazing moments.”