74,000 watch Doctor Who star launch tourist campaign

6th December 2011

A worldwide celebrity film campaign to bring tourists to Wales was launched in front of 74,000 fans at the Millennium Stadium as Wales prepared to face Australia in a rugby friendly.

The campaign uses Doctor Who actor Matt Smith, who extols the virtues of the Cardiff city region and Welsh-born actor Luke Evans.

The ads build on the all-star cast already assembled to promote the UK overseas as part of the UK national tourism agency’s ‘Great Britain You’re Invited’ marketing programme.

Taking the opportunity to enthuse viewers with his own experiences, Matt Smith describes how he has become very fond of the Welsh after spending nine months of the year in the capital while filming the adventures of Doctor Who. His insight comes as the new interactive Doctor Who Experience gets ready to open in Cardiff Bay next year and as the Wales Millennium Centre prepares to host the first Official Dr Who Convention, where visitors will have unparalleled access to the cast and crew of the BBC’s hit series.

Matt Smith said: “One of the virtues and benefits of filming Doctor Who in Wales is that it affords such a great variety of locations and each one of those locations has such scale. Many of our scenes are shot in quarries, a lot of forests and in famous castles, so we get to take the Tardis on a grand sightseeing tour of Wales.

“There are plenty of things to do if you come to visit Cardiff, but a must is probably to go and watch one of the Six Nations rugby games. I like the way the Welsh are so passionate about their sport and on a Saturday when the rugby is on, Cardiff becomes rugby orientated in a way that not many cities are.”

Laurence Bresh, Marketing Director at VisitBritain said: “Two globally recognised stars in their own right are now on board to inspire the world to visit Wales as part of our ‘GREAT Britain - You’re Invited’ campaign. We are honoured to add both Matt and Luke to our ‘dream team’ of global ambassadors.

“Doctor Who is one of the BBC’s most watched shows around the world, so having Matt on board is a perfect fit for our ambitions to increase international visits to the UK. It is a great endorsement of all the wonderful experiences that can be found by visitors if they go to Wales.

The two films are the latest in VisitBritain’s ‘GREAT Britain - You’re Invited’ campaign. Over the next four years the organisation is looking to attract an extra 4.6 million visitors, spending an additional £2.3 billion across the country and supporting the creation of almost 60,000 new jobs.

Click to view the film here.

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