Mayor of London Sadiq Khan begins US tour in New York
- Published
The mayor hopes to encourage American visitors back to London
Sadiq Khan has arrived in New York to begin a tour of the US aimed at boosting London's economy.
Over the next four days, the mayor of London will travel to San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
The tour includes meetings with senior politicians and business leaders at Google and LinkedIn.
Mr Khan said he intended to use the trip to "bang the drum for London" tourism following the Covid-19 pandemic and also for tech industries.
"What's really important is that we encourage international tourists back to our city," Mr Khan said.
Mr Khan visited Times Square to launch the campaign with Six the Musical cast members
"We will encourage tourists, we will encourage business, we will encourage investment. We are the greatest city in the world, but we have had a horrible two years. We want them back; we need them back."
One New Yorker present at the launch, Lexi Nagy, 19, said she would be booking her tickets to the capital.
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She said: "After seeing this performance [of] Six the Musical, external on Broadway and the mayor of London, I'm on the next plane to London."
On his first day of the tour, Mr Khan met the billionaire former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, who ran the city from 2002 to 2013. He also ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic nomination for US president.
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On Monday, Mr Khan met the city's current mayor Eric Adams - who described him as a "rockstar mayor" - to launch the start of a £10m tourism campaign.
Analysis by Harry Low
BBC London in New York
Since arriving on Sunday, the mayor has been facing questions about Covid rates in London.
He appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe - one of the most popular cable TV news shows in the US.
Mr Khan used the platform to reassure Americans, referencing London's falling hospital admissions, rising vaccination rates - although these lag behind the rest of the UK - and what he described as world-class disinfectant on public transport.
The rising cost of living is also a hot topic for Americans facing record levels of inflation, currently at its highest level since December 1981.
This means the challenge for London's mayor will be to convince them to spend their hard-earned dollars in the UK capital rather than elsewhere.
Greater London Authority (GLA) figures show London lost £7.4bn of international tourist spending in 2020 alone.
Tourism supports as many as one in seven jobs in the capital and contributes almost 12% of London's GDP, according to the GLA.
Mr Khan and Mr Bloomberg, who ran New York from 2002 to 2013, met New Yorkers during a walkabout
In 2021, the number of overnight stays made by tourists to the capital plunged to 60.8 million from 147.4 million in 2019.
The tourism campaign will invest £3m in a bid to attract more domestic tourists back to the capital. A further £7m will be dedicated to an international marketing campaign to try to drive tourists back to London.
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- Published10 May 2021
