UK - City Hall took a leaf out of the exhibition industry’s hosted buyer philosophy, flying in over 80 foreign buyers and media for London Fashion Week.
The Mayor’s office believes the resultant media coverage was worth £15.5 million. More than £5 million of fashion orders were recorded by French buyers attending the catwalk shows.
During a visit to the Big Apple, Boris Johnson also signed a two-year tourism agreement with New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Johnson said London and New York shared “absolute dedication to providing world-class services and experiences for both residents and visitors, making the two cities exceptionally well poised to combine knowledge as well as resources to impact the economies and future of the cities”.
The cities will provide each other with outdoor media advertising space and NYC and Company and Visit London - their respective tourism arms - will share best practices as a way to maximise travel between the two destinations.
Visit London CEO Sally Chatterejee described the deal as “an exciting first step in what we expect to be a very fruitful partnership”.
Americans made almost two million visits to London last year and America remains London’s number one market for international visitors.
The Mayor of London was also due to meet with competition winners boarding a British Airways (BA) flight to London at JFK Airport as part of the ‘face-to-face’ initiative to stimulate business travel from the United States.
The BA initiative follows research by Harvard Business School which shows that while business travel budgets have tightened during the economic downturn, global business executives say face-to-face meetings remain a crucial part of selling new business and building partnerships.
Image: Mayors Johnson and Bloomberg: Photo credit: Spencer Tucker, Office of Mayor Bloomberg’
