20 February 2008

A new partnership between national tourism agency, VisitBritain, and airline bmi is helping British tourism businesses reach a greater pool of consumers and potential visitors.

For the first time, VisitBritain has ‘white labeled’ its popular on-line shop with bmi branding, selling British tourism products from Oyster cards and other transport passes, tickets to attractions and events, meals out, accommodation guides, touring passes, books and maps. It means that bmi customers can buy all they might need for their trip to Britain – in advance and from a quality, trustworthy source – at flybmi.com/britainshopNL, flybmi.com/britainshopFR and flybmi.com/britainshopROW.

The ‘white label’ shop and other commercial and marketing services offered by VisitBritain can help partners grow ancillary revenues and increase customer satisfaction and retention.Thanks to bmi’s strong presence throughout 45 destinations in Europe,the Middle East and Central Asia, the initiative can inspire international visitors to choose Britain over rival destinations.

Kenny Boyle, director of commercial and marketing services at VisitBritain, says: “With increasing competition from destinations around the world and visits from Europe currently up just one per cent, Britain must take every opportunity to remain ahead of the crowd. Our ambition is to help all parts of the industry improve their profitability and widen awareness of all that can be enjoyed on a business or leisure trip here.”

Christine Van den Winckel, international marketing manager, says: “bmi has always been an airline trend setter and adds this partnership with VisitBritain to its impressive list of firsts. Our status of second largest British airline operating at London Heathrow leaves us in an excellent position to spread the word on British tourism, and our recently expanded network puts a lot of new potential visitors well within our reach. bmi constantly integrates new technologies for a smooth and comfortable travel experience. Today this unique partnership with VisitBritain makes flybmi.com still more attractive, user-friendly and interactive for its increasing number of users.

Further information: Elliott Frisby, Corporate PR Manager on 020 8563 3035 or 07951 996241

www.visitbritain.com/presscentre

Notes to Editors

·         VisitBritain is responsible for promoting Britain as a world class tourist destination and for developing England’s visitor economy. It has representatives in 36 countries around the world and, in the last three years, has expanded into China, throughout Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, and increased its presence in India with representatives in Bangalore and Mumbai.

·         In 2006, there were 32.7 million visits to Britain, 9% up on 2005. They spent over £16 billion in the UK: a 12% increase on 2005.Globally, the UK retains 6th place in visitor arrivals, slipping one place to 6th in spend.

·         VisitBritain’s international website, www.visitbritain.com, was awarded World’s Leading Tourism Authority Internet Site for the fourth year in a row at the 2007 World Travel Awards by more than 200,000 travel and tourism professionals. With information provided in 26 different languages, every year over 12 million visits are made by international consumers to the 46 websites that make up visitbritain.com. VisitBritain plans to increase this to 25 million by 2009.

·         bmi is the second largest airline at London Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest and best connected airports.  Across its full mainline and regional network, bmi operates 1,800 flights a week to:  Aberdeen; Addis Ababa; Aleppo; Alicante (summer only); Almaty; Amsterdam; Ankara; Antigua; Baku; Barbados; Beirut; Belfast City; Bishkek; Brussels; Cairo; Chicago; Cologne (from Feb 2008); Copenhagen; Damascus; Dammam (from March 2008); Dublin; Durham Tees Valley; East Midlands; Edinburgh; Ekaterinburg; Esbjerg; Freetown; Glasgow; Groningen; Hanover; Jeddah; Jersey; Khartoum; Las Vegas; Leeds Bradford; London Heathrow; Lyon (winter only); Manchester; Moscow Domodedovo; Naples (summer only); Nice (summer only); Norwich; Palma Mallorca; Riyadh; Tbilisi; Tehran; Tel Aviv (from March 2008); Venice; Yerevan; Zurich. More information on flybmi.com

·         bmi is a member of Star Alliance, established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer customers worldwide reach and a smooth travel experience. Star Alliance was voted Best Airline Alliance by Business Traveller Magazine in 2003, 2006 and 2007 and by Skytrax in 2003, 2005 and 2007. The members are Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, THAI, United and US Airways. Regional member carriers Adria Airways (Slovenia), Blue1 (Finland) and Croatia Airlines enhance the global network. Air India, EgyptAir and Turkish Airlines have been accepted as future members. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers more than 17,000 daily flights to 897 destinations in 160 countries.