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As part of the Mayor of London’s ‘#LondonIsOpen’ campaign, the city’s West End has launched its first ever website to drive visitors to the area.
The area, which is extremely popular with tourists throughout the year, will also be liveried for the first time in its history as it prepares for visitor spend in excess of £1bn over summer.
Delivered by the West End Partnership 374, flags across nine streets spanning approximately 4.5 miles have been installed across the area including Bond Street, Conduit Street, Coventry Street, Haymarket, Leicester Square, Oxford Street, Piccadilly, South Molton Street, Regent Street St James’s.
Each flag welcomes visitors from across the globe to the West End with ‘Everyone Welcome’ written in the 12 languages of the top 10 visitor countries to the West End.
Sadiq Khan, said: “London is the greatest city in the world and our globally renowned West End attracts millions of people who want to sample its unbeatable mix of shops, theatres and major tourist attractions.
“There is nowhere that better epitomises the spirit of London than the West End – so my message this summer is that this wonderful part of our city is teeming with things to do, places to visit and people to meet.”
Tom Jenkins, CEO of the European Tourism Association added: “It is inevitable that recent events cause concern within the tourism industry. But what has been remarkable is the comparative robustness in the marketplace.
“Our understanding is that new bookings are affected, but not dramatically and such downturns are usually short and getting shorter. If this holds, we would be roughly 15% up on last year.”
