News story

GREAT campaign kicks off in Rio de Janeiro

2016 Olympic host city celebrates best of British

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Prince Harry, on his first official visit to Brazil, will launch the GREAT campaign at Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro today, along with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The event will celebrate the close links between Brazil and the UK and will encourage more people to visit, study and do business in Britain. It comes after launches in New York and Los Angeles and before the campaign heads to New Delhi, Melbourne and Tokyo.

As part of the launch, stars from the world of British rugby and Brazillian beach volleyball will take part in a GREAT sports day on Flamengo Beach. Wayne Morris and Adriana Behar will be leading workshops for local children in rugby which will be an Olympic sport for the first time in 2016, and beach volleyball in which the Brazillians are specialists.

Brazil: a key market

Brazil is one of the UK’s key target markets for tourism. Britain is the tenth most visited destination by Brazillians and it’s hoped the UK could be welcoming an extra 100,000 visits a year from Brazil by 2020. The GREAT campaign is a key driver to encouraging more visitors to UK shores driving growth and spend.

Jeremy Hunt said:

“As the next Olympic host city Rio de Janeiro is a fantastic place to showcase all that is GREAT about Britain. Passing on the Olympic baton to them after 2012 will be an honour and I hope we can build on the close relationships already forged by inspiring more people to do sport, more visitors to holiday and study in the UK, and more companies to do business in Britain.”

Further information

Published 9 March 2012