Brand USA Steps Up at NFL London Games to Woo Visitors Back to U.S.
Photo Credit: Brand USA is once again partnering with NFL UK to sponsor the 2018 NFL London Games. Pictured are NFL fans in Trafalgar Square in London. Flickr / Ania Mendrek
Skift Take
Brand USA will have one of its biggest stages of the year during the three-game NFL London Games series this month, and it will need every inch of that stage to capitalize on the moment as UK visitation has fallen in recent years.
The three NFL games taking place in London this month will get some extra offense from Brand USA, the country’s national destination marketing organization that is a lead sponsor of the games and kickoff concert.
The UK is the largest overseas visitor market for the United States, but UK arrivals were down nearly 7 percent in 2016 and 2.3 percent in 2017. Part of Brand USA's aim with its NFL sponsorship is to reverse that trend.
UK arrivals are up nearly 3 percent from January through April this year, the most recent period for which data is available from the National Travel & Tourism Office, but arrivals are down nearly 10 percent year-over-year for April.
The stakes are high to revive the downward trend. The UK is also the fifth largest market for visitor spending in the United States, and UK tr
