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Boris Johnson visits New York to lure tourists and investors
Katharine Barney, City Hall Reporter11.09.09
Boris Johnson is to make an unprecedented tour of New York in an attempt to lure Americans to London as tourists and encourage foreign investment.
The Mayor, who was born in New York, returns to the city to champion the English capital and conduct a series of high-profile meetings.
His itinerary will see him attending and speaking at a series of financial meetings, hosting creative industry events at the height of New York Fashion Week and launching tourism promotion initiatives to increase American visits to London.
The tourism drive includes a coup for London with the world premiere of Disney's Christmas Carol winter blockbuster in Leicester Square.
For the first time all the Christmas lights in Regent Street, Oxford Street and the City will be switched on at the same time prior to the premiere.
There will also be a new publicity campaign that will see New York being given advertising space at Tube stations in exchange for a similar amount of publicity for London at New York bus
stops.
During the four-day tour, which begins tomorrow, Mr Johnson will pay tribute to the victims of the September 11 terror attack at the memorial to the British dead.
On Sunday he will visit the cast of Billy Elliot to promote London's theatres. He will also meet New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to discuss the
global financial crisis. And he will ring the bell to signify the start of trading at the NASDAQ stock exchange and the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to mark a close in trading.
Mr Johnson will be joined on his trip by chief of staff Simon Milton, director of marketing Dan Ritterband and chief spin doctor Guto Harri.
They are being flown free by British Airways. Accommodation is being provided by Mr Bloomberg.
Mr Johnson said: “I was born in New York and am very excited about returning to what I consider London's sister city.
“Londoners and New Yorkers are the same breed, sharing the same passion for working and playing hard, with homegrown talent that excels in a range of sectors across the world.
“The future for London is spectacularly bright and American investors are spoilt for choice in the range of opportunities that we are offering.”
He added: “The 2012 Games are approaching fast and there is huge investment in the capital's infrastructure, resulting in numerous business
opportunities.
“Add to this our diverse social and leisure scene and the message is clear: London is open for business”.
During his trip he will write a blog at borisjohnsonvisits.blogspot.com and post videos on YouTube at www.youtube.com/mayorsofficelondon
Reader views (21)
New York is by far the worst City in the states with by far the worst people.
London, thankfully is nothing like it and hoefully never will be!
If you want Americans here, go get some nice ones!
Further perhaps work on our service industries so they are not so shocked by how bad our service is here.
- Jon, London
What a total waste of money, all this bloated oaf does is suck money out of London for his own benefit. Unfortunately people like Sarah are far to dumb to realise this, what planet is she on??
- D.W., London
I'd much rather Boris concentrated on encouraging tourism and investment from Asia. I don't want american money, I find it makes me choke.
- Pjw, London
This is a completely sensible move - Boris is London's ambassador and going to NY to drum up more trade and tourists is entirely reasonable. It's not a junket and it's not even costing Londoners anything. It's good for London, good for BA (which is why they're picking up the flight bill) and good for the country. Would the nay-sayers ban all politicians from flying abroad to represent the country?
On another point, is Keith Price a Tory plant? It's difficult to imagine that anyone, anywhere, shares his views on just about anything. Apart from Val from Spain. Perhaps she's another one.
- Rupert Rg, Brighton, Brighton, East Sussex
Who needs to go across the Atlantic when in a few years London will be exactly the same as New York thanks to Ken Livingstone allowing developers to build massive ugly tower blocks all over the place ruining this once great and beautiful city.
- Frank, London
Great to see the early days of Boris forgotten, when marketing budgets were being slashed and overseas offices and foreign trips were signs of the hated profligate former regime. Now popping over to the US with your chief spin doctor in tow is just the ticket.
Funny how things turn out. Apparently spending money promoting London abroad is really quite a good idea and being Mayor of London comes with an international component commensurate with leading a great world city.
For those with short memories, New York's Mayor Bloomberg visited London in 2007. For those with slightly longer memories, Livingstone visited New York in 2001, where he met then-Mayor Rudy Guiliani and apparently got on quite well despite their rather different politics.
- Tom, London, UK
Keith Price - a waster from the detritus called Croydon.
Let’s face it Keith you are clearly not pro anything constructive. The wretched borough that you live in had its glory days many years ago when the airport was thriving, now it is home to negative thinkers like you.
I am proud to have Boris represent London, yes even Croydon and its people, yes even Keith price, to the New Yorkers. I hop Boris drums up some much needed business, outside of the Olympics and because he now heads up the police reviews how the policing has improved in New York and creates a mutually beneficial agreement to improve the Met's methods of policing London
- Jamie, London - The Centre of the Thinking Peoples Universe
Nice one ´Timbo´ and ´Liberal and Proud´. One gets so tired reading the practised one liners of the usual moaners groaners and tea cosy knitters.
- Tbear, Frankfurt, Germany
Did he fly economy?
- Roy, England
The real problem with these expensive junkets is that they really do not do what they say they will do. You cannot just send a politician off to a city that's barely aware of him and think that this will bring in loads of tourists. There is no proper method of measuring the effectiveness of these jaunts, other than the "he met the Mayor, attended meetings and did a lot so it 'must have' had some impact". Go ask New Yorkers if they rushed in their droves to travel agents because of the visit of Hizonner. No change from the previous Mayor I'm afraid.
- Damian Hockney, London, UK
@Clara
Take a deep breath and read the article again.
Quote:
"They are being flown free by British Airways. Accommodation is being provided by Mr Bloomberg."
- Des, Wickford
Good idea, hope it is a success.
Quick question, is Sarah actually Boris in disguise?
- Darren, London
Hmmm, using a bumbling clown who looks like he got dressed in the dark to entice Americans to our shore, whatever happened to the tourist board?
- Joey Schultz, London
There are many legitimate concerns about Boris’ mayoralty, but a decision to promote tourism in NYC is hardly one of them.
The constant barrage of criticism from Pricey and his gang has made people like me re-affirm my belief that most of the anti-Boris brigade are not interesting in improving London, but rather getting rid of the man who ousted their hero.
It’s a shame, because when Boris does screw up and legitimately deserves criticism, thanks to people like Keith Price, there will be no credible critics out there who we can take seriously and Boris will get away with whatever he has done.
- St, London
Am I paying for this little jolly through my council tax? In one breath he's telling us we need to pay higher tube fares, in the next he's jetting off the NYC to 'promote' the capital. Classic politician hypocracy.
- Clara, London, UK
What wonderfully predictable first three reactions to this news of Boris' trip! One moaning that we have too many visitors, one praising Boris and one whingeing about freebies and carbon footprints. Me - I have some sympathy with the first, am totally with the middle one and despair at the Pavlovian response of the third.
- Timbo, London SW13
Croyboy, Croydon - congratulations on the most short sighted, ignorant comment this week.
Tourists create jobs, jobs generate money, money improves quality of life, tourists go home, everyone's happy (well almost).
Besides - no tourists are going to go to Croydon, so I don't know what you're complaining about.
- Liberal And Proud, London, UK
The Americans have seen Hugh Grant, now they want to see the real thing. The real bumbling English twit who can barely walk in a straight line without making everyone laugh with derision.
- Keith Price, Luton England
"The Mayor will also promote London as a tourist destination..."
No, Boris, for God's sake DON'T. ...We've got far too many people here already, and don't need more. Please think about the quality of Londoners' lives (REAL Londoners, I mean), rather than the welfare of some fat-cat's wretched "bottom line".
- Croyboy, Croydon
Excellent work Boris. We need more decent friends in New York, unlike the shady characters of Caracas that our previous Mayor befriended.
- Sarah, London
Another nice junket. And it will certainly add a good whack to Boris' carbon footprint.
- Thomas, London
