Britain's largest ever "tourism" army heads to Shanghai

VisitBritain CEO Sally Balcombe said: "Our Destination Britain China event gives British travel suppliers the chance to forge valuable business connections with the Chinese travel trade."

"This is a fantastic opportunity for travel suppliers and local destinations to get their tourism products and services to inspire more visitors to come and explore more of our nations and regions," said Balcombe.

As well as doing business with top travel buyers in China, delegates at this year's event will hear about the latest international travel market trends, what Britain is doing to attract more international visitors, alongside seminars and networking to boost knowledge of Britain as a tourist destination.

The spokeswoman for Visit Britain added: "Last year was a record-breaking year for visits from China to Britain with 270,000 visits, 46 percent up on the year before with spend up 18 percent to 586 million pounds ($724 million ), moving China into Britain's top 10 most valuable inbound markets for the first time."

"Latest flight booking data shows that flight bookings from China for November this year to January 2017 are up 17 percent on the same period last year," said the spokeswoman, adding "VisitBritain has ambitions to double spend from Chinese visitors to 1 billion pounds ($1.25 billion) by 2020."

After their mission to Shanghai, the event moves to South Korea to signal a new start for VisitBritain's promotional effort in that market, described as one of Britain's fastest growing inbound markets.