British Airways has unveiled its multi-million London 2012 Olympics campaign, its largest ever sponsorship.

The British flag carrier has paid £40m for tier-one sponsorship. The campaign is being anchored by the Great Britons programme, which offers travel bursaries for talented individuals and groups.

The new campaign sees Heston Blumenthal, Richard E Grant and Tracey Emin offering mentoring sessions for aspiring chefs, scriptwriters and artists. It will also feature 2012 athletes, such as sailor Ben Ainslie, in BA media adverts with the tagline: “They will fly.”

The launch marks an increase in the visibility of the companies sponsoring London 2012, with the focus now switching away from the construction of the stadium in Stratford slows to the commercial partners signed up by Locog, the organiser.

Sponsorship deals have so far raised around £670m for Olympic organisers, just short of the target of £700m. The overall cost of organising the games is £9.3bn.

But the companies are also providing key products and services that are fundamental to making the Olympics in London a reality.

Sport Tourism is travel industry’s fastest growing sector, and contributed an astonishing 14 percent of overall travel and tourism receipts in 2010, according to WSDE Sport Tourism Expo, the only global exhibition and business forum dedicated to showcasing the full spectrum of Sport Tourism related products and services.

At a time when some traditional tourism trends are in decline, Sport Tourism continues to flourish and is set to grow exponentially in the next decade.

Yet the complex mechanics of Sport Tourism have not yet been fully understood or realised.  The annual
WSDE Sport Tourism Expo aims to present the future business deals and source new contacts and markets, but also to gain invaluable insights from the advanced knowledge of market leaders.

Now in its second year, WDSE Sport Tourism Expo will take place in Bangkok, Thailand - Asia’s Sport Tourism Gateway - from 27-29 September 2011.

City.Mobi

Also in London today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to London. 

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

London.Mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.