According to new figures recently released by London’s tourism marketing agency, Visit London, the number of people visiting the attractions in London, including museums and galleries, increased in April this year.

The figures showed that around 3.6 million visitors went to attractions in London during April. This is a large increase compared to April 2008 of around 20 per cent.

Sally Chatterjee, chief executive of the tourism agency, said:

‘The increase of visitors to London’s attractions is a very positive sign and demonstrates that London is still drawing people to the capital despite the economic climate. London is the world’s most visited international city and our diverse range of attractions remains one of the key draws of the city.’

The visitor numbers to paid attractions rose by approximately 26 per cent taking the total to 1.6 million visitors. The visitor numbers to all attractions in London rose by 2 per cent during February, March and April.

Reasons cited for the increase in April included the warm weather, city breaks during Easter and the increase in the numbers of visitors on their holidays from Europe taking advantage of the currency exchange rate whilst the pound is weakened against the Euro.

A new campaign to promote flights using Korean Air is to be promoted on hundreds of black cabs across the city of London.

The campaign from Korean Air is set to run up until the 23rd August featuring around 30 full liveried black cabs and 200 supersided taxis.

The taxis will show an image to represent the Korean Air network, each of which shows potential holidaymakers the different destinations available for holidays flying from London Heathrow to Seoul Incheon and the air carrier’s international flight network.

Some of the most popular cities for holidays are served by Korean Air including; Singapore, Sydney and Auckland in New Zealand.

Jeong Soo Park, general manager of the airline’s London office, said:

“This year’s UK taxi advertising campaign, symbolised by our ‘network feather’, promotes Korean Air’s growing international network. By launching diversified marketing campaigns, Korean Air will continue to show its dedication to serving the UK market.”

Korean Air has recently expanded its range of flights this month as it launches new flights to Japan to the Mount Fuji Shizuoka airport.

SkyTeam has made a recent announcement that it is to start the first phase of the new co-branded alliance lounge. The new lounge, which will be opposite Gate 10 in Terminal 4 at London Heathrow Airport, will be over 1,600 square metres over two levels, which gives enough room for over 300 passengers.

The first phrase will be completed and open at some point towards the end of June this year and then the second phase; the second level is expected to open in November this year in conjunction with the dedicated alliance facility.

Facilities within the new lounge will include full body massaging chairs, a wine bar and an oxygen bar and will be open to SkyTeam Elite Plus, business class and first class passengers using Terminal 4 for their holidays and other travel. Those using KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Continental Airlines, Kenya Airways and Delta Air Lines will be able to access the first level.

Francesca Freeland, leading the SkyTeam Heathrow Airport team said:

“Today is extremely significant for SkyTeam as we become one step closer to transforming Terminal 4 at London Heathrow into the first-ever airport facility truly centred around the alliance and its passengers.”

Opening hours of the new lounge will be from 5.30am to the time of the departure of the last flight each day.

In the recent travel press, a spokesperson for the company Visit London described the capital city as a ‘unique’ holiday destination for tourists.

The Senior PR Manager for the tourist agency Visit London, Jacqueline French has claimed that the city of London is quite special in terms of what it has to offer as a holiday destination because the city has so many diverse attractions.

Ms French pointed out that visitors who come to the capital city to experience the fabulous views available from the London Eye also stand to learn a great deal about the arts and culture as well as the history of London.

Ms French commented:

“What makes London a unique destination is we have all of those things here. You may come to visit one thing and then you might see something else and it just enhances the whole experience.”

Ms French also claims that there is a huge importance for more investment into the city’s attractions as she offered an example of the London Monument, which opened again earlier this year after major refurbishment work.

The Best of Britain and Ireland Show 2009 announced that the most popular attraction with tourists and holiday makers was the London Eye.

Over the May bank holiday weekend the country saw a huge 1.8 million British people decide to take an overseas holiday, claims the travel association ABTA.

The favourite holiday destination for British people was Spain and this proved to be the most popular, with people taking holidays from the UK between 22nd and 25th May, which was the start of the half term break for schools in Britain.

During the May bank holiday period, the five favourite city break destinations that proved to be the most popular were; Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, New York and Rome said ABTA.

The top of the list for long haul holidays over the May bank holiday was Florida, with Turkey and Egypt being the next popular destinations with visitors who travelled outside of the euro zone.

The president of ABTA, Justin Fleming said: “In spite of the recession, passenger numbers this bank holiday weekend are very healthy, showing that the British love affair with foreign travel is as strong as ever.”

ABTA also released statistics from research conducted earlier this year which highlighted that 68 percent of British people were still prepared to spend the same amount of money on their 2009 holidays than they were the previous year despite the economic downturn.

The Jumeirah Group, a Dubai-based hotel organisation has just launched a fabulous new promotion which they are offering to holiday makers with families, on a global scale. The new holiday promotion has been designed to provide holiday makers with children an opportunity to take advantage of staying in ’some of the most luxurious hotels in the world’.

The hotel group has launched this as ‘The Jumeirah Summer Days’ promotion, a fantastic new hotel scheme available to those taking a family holiday in London, New York and Dubai this year.

The new promotion means that children who are under the age of 15 years can eat and stay completely free in any Jumeirah hotel in the three capital cities. The hotel company claims that this year’s promotion is going to ‘enable families to make the most of the summer’.

The new Jumeirah family packages also includes; buffet breakfast, a daily gift certificate for a range of leisure facilities and full access to the water park ‘Wild Wadi’ in Dubai.

Chief Sales and Marketing Manager for Jumeirah Group, Apo Demirtas said:

“We are delighted to offer the ultimate family experience to our guests this summer. At Jumeirah, we believe that true luxury is emotional, memorable and above all, personal. We therefore felt it was important to offer our guests the flexibility to personalise our summer promotion.”

The airline British Airways has just announced they are due to launch new flights this year due to the demand from holiday makers. Flights will leave from London’s Gatwick Airport to Jamaica’s Montego Bay and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

The new flights will run twice a week and are due to start on 25th October and will form a part of the British Airway’s winter flight network.

British Airways now provides more services to the Caribbean than any other UK carrier; their leading position is set to be strengthened further during 2009 by an additional launch of flight services to three destinations in the Caribbean.

The amount of flights offered to holiday and business customers from London’s Gatwick Airport to Trinidad and St Lucia have been increased from 3 to 5 flights per week while Barbados is to be served by 10 weekly flight services.

BA’s head of UK and Ireland sales, Richard Tams said:

“These new routes and increased frequencies underline our commitment to the Caribbean. It’s a popular destination with our customers and it’s due to demand that we’re increasing the number of flights to the region.”

British Airways also service the Caribbean destinations of; St Kitts, Grenada, Antigua and Kingston.

An announcement from VisitBritain has revealed that they are now beginning to focus on the summer events programme due to take part within the UK which will be set to attract holiday makers from America.

Along with Virgin Atlantic, the tourist agency has just launched the new initiative which is aimed to encouraged holiday makers to visit Britain from the United States.

As part of the international campaign, VisitBritain have also decided to dedicate a new website to part of their holiday and tourist campaign informing all tourists of the attractions that the UK has to offer in 2009 including the best places to go to get more for your money.

A spokesman for VisitBritain, Elliott Frisby commented: “What we are particularly focusing on this year is our events calendar, so the fantastic range of the summer sporting season that they can enjoy here and summer music festivals are part of the campaign.”

The Glastonbury festival is scheduled for June and is sure to attract music fans from across the country which is quickly followed by huge music events at Reading and Leeds.

The highlights in relation to sporting events include the Ashes cricket and this year features matches in London, Cardiff, Birmingham and other locations, which is then followed by the famous Wimbledon tennis tournament.

This year, the city of London is preparing itself for the hosting of the Tower Festival which is anticipated to draw crowds of city break visitors from all over the country.

The event is for those people who would like to experience some real culture and it is sponsored by Continental Airlines and will be held between 10th and 20th September at the Tower of London.

Some of the anticipated highlights of this festival include a section known as the Sadler’s Wells Dance section and will feature fantastic performances from Erin Boag and Anton du Beke of Strictly Come Dancing along with the flamenco star Paco Pena.

Nigel Kennedy, the famous violinist is set to perform at the festival’s opening ceremony gala and the very popular Lesley Garrett, the soprano singer is also appearing along with the Fron Male Voice Choir.

The festival also offers the opportunity for musical fans to see a new show of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard which is supported by over 50 singers accompanied by the Carl Rosa Opera Orchestra.

As one of London’s most famous landmarks, The Tower of London Festival will be welcoming city break visitors from all corners of the UK and visitors from around the world.

Those who are fans of the queen of pop, Madonna will be able to see her live in concert in Europe if they decide to combine a city break holiday with a visit to one of Madonna’s famous live shows during the summer this year.

Madonna is set to start her European tour with her first gig playing at London’s O2 Arena on 4th and 5th July, which will be followed by a live performance in the North West of England at Manchester’s MEN Arena on 7th July.

Madonna is then due to head over the English Channel to complete the rest of her European tour dates which will see her play live on the 9th July in Paris. Further concerts are scheduled; 14th July in Milan, 21st July in Barcelona and the 23rd July in Madrid with various other city break hot spots.

Madonna’s whole tour is to cover eastern European cities such as Prague, Tallinn, Warsaw, Budapest and finishes at the end of August.

Madonna is popular with fans all over the world as she is one of the most successful female recording artists in history with over 200 million albums sold worldwide.