Britain’s national tourism agency, VisitBritain, has signed a deal with Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) to be a key travel sponsor for its fantasy football website, goalarabia.com, which features the English Premier League.

As part of the deal a prize to travel to Britain to attend a live Premiership match courtesy of Visit Britain will be promoted via banners and a competition page on the website, said a top official.

“Watching sport – and football in particular – is a key attraction for travellers coming to Britain. A recent survey commissioned by VisitBritain shows that 40 per cent of all prospective visitors want to attend a football game, with more than one million people actually attending each season,” said Carol Maddison, UAE manager of VisitBritain.

VisitBritain’s logo will also appear as prize sponsor on all promotional material for goalarabia.com that appears on the company’s television, online, print and radio outlets, in addition VisitBritain’s prize information will be incorporated in television commercials for the Premiership.

The deal is part of an ongoing global partnership between VisitBritain and the English premier League which aims to encourage people to travel to Britain to attend matches, which in the UAE comes with the tagline; "The beautiful game from the beautiful place."

The competition will run throughout the Premiership season which can only be viewed in the UAE on Abu Dhabi Sports TV Channels and admcsport.com.
  
"Football is an area of British tourism that we want to develop and that is why we are working closely with Abu Dhabi Sports TV Channels and admcsports.com on their Premiership coverage," Maddison remarked.

In line with this commitment, VisitBritain has developed a dedicated football website that makes it really easy for foreign tourists to find information on their favourite teams, and most importantly how to attend matches when in the UK,” she added.
 
"The dedicated football site - www.visitbritain.com/football - covers all 20 clubs in England’s Premier League, giving visitors details of when they are playing, how to buy tickets, how to arrange a behind-the-scenes tour of their team’s ground, plus recommendations from some of the Barclays Premier League’s biggest stars on what to do while in Britain," Maddison said.

The site also highlights the wealth of popular and less well-known attractions close to Premier League football grounds, such as Chelsea’s Physic Garden and the Museum of Fulham Palace, Manchester’s Lowry Museum, Imperial War Museum and Urbis exhibition centre which houses the biggest football museum in the world, she added.

In August VisitBritain and the Premier League announced that they would be extending their two-year partnership to promote Britain as a top visitor destination by a further three years.

The Barclays Premier League is the most watched football league in the world. It is broadcast in more than 200 countries worldwide, securing a cumulative global audience in excess of 2.65 billion.-TradeArabia News Service