National tourism agency VisitBritain has launched a digital campaign with Scandinavian Airlines to boost inbound tourism to Britain.

The £150,000 campaign will run for five weeks in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, to promote travel to Britain and drive visitor growth in and beyond central London. 

SAS flies into London Heathrow and will launch a new flight into London Stansted from Monday, April 1st.

The campaign is shining the spotlight on destinations outside of Zone 1, encouraging visitors to discover the London boroughs of Greenwich, Hackney and Richmond as well as the city’s famous attractions and landmarks.

A focus is also on promoting cities and towns within a two-hour radius of London, inspiring visitors to travel further and explore more in destinations including Brighton, Oxford and Windsor.

The campaign marks the first time VisitBritain has partnered with SAS to focus on Scandinavia, driving growth from northern Europe and converting the aspiration to visit Britain into actual bookings.

VisitBritain Europe director, Robin Johnson, said: “It is great to be partnering with SAS for the first time, amplifying our campaign to convert the aspiration to visit Britain into actual bookings and promoting our message of welcome. 

“We know that visitors from Scandinavia rate Britain highly for its famous sights and monuments and our campaign highlights the fantastic destinations and attractions that travellers can discover within a short journey from central London.

“We are showing that Britain is a great destination to visit right now, encouraging visitors to travel further and stay longer.”

The content will run across VisitBritain and Scandinavian Airlines online and social channels including dedicated campaign pages.

Scandinavian Airlines head of international marketing, Will Reed, said: “We are delighted to establish a partnership with VisitBritain and be teaming up for this campaign.

“We know our travellers fly every week in their thousands to visit London and by partnering with VisitBritain we aim to share more of the easily accessible places and hidden gems, either inside or outside of London, to explore and experience somewhere new.”

Latest official figures show that from January to September 2018 there were 1.6 million inbound visits from Scandinavia to the UK.

Visitors from Scandinavia spent £918 million in the UK during this period.