Saif Ali Khan to promote 'Bollywood Britain' tourism campaign

The national tourism agency of Britain has roped in Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan for promoting an India-centric campaign.

Khan will promote 'Bollywood Britain' campaign for the agency, VisitBritain which wants to focus on locations featured in Hindi films to attract more Indian visitors.

In 2013, Britain witnesses over 3,75,000 visitors from India (a 10 per cent increase over 2012), making it the biggest source market for tourists from the BRIC nations, VisitBritain Regional Manager (Asia Pacific and Middle East) Sumathi Ramanathan told PTI here.

"Therefore, the need to create campaigns that appeal to the Indian visitors is a priority for us," she said.

The UK, which has always fascinated Bollywood producers who captured beautiful locations of the European country in their films, is mainly targeting the young and honeymoon segment, Ramanathan said.

The campaign will highlight different locations featured in some of the Bollywood blockbusters starring the biggest names in Hindi film industry, including Khan, she said.

She said VisitBritain had always focused on people from Delhi and Mumbai as its target audience. However, going forward, it is planning to penetrate deeper into the country by holding promotional events and roadshows in cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.

"Overall, we see a lot of potential in growth in the Indian market. We mainly cater to three segments - family, luxury and millennials (18-29 age group). For this purpose we come up with campaigns promoting various aspects of Britain.

"By 2016, we are aiming for 4 lakh people (from India) to visit the UK for enjoying our food, shopping, musicals and theatres among others," she added.