LONDON — SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond film, will be released in cinemas worldwide on Oct. 26 and in Canada on Nov. 6. To leverage the fanfare of the films VisitBritain launched a global ‘Bond is GREAT’ Britain film tourism campaign in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.

The campaign is kicking off across more than 60 countries to encourage 007 fans to choose Britain – the home of Bond – for their next holiday.

As the official national tourism partner for the theatrical release of SPECTRE, VisitBritain’s global campaign is using a mix of outdoor billboards, print, digital and social media. This includes exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ footage from SPECTRE through its dedicated campaign page VisitBritain.com/spectre. Three new Bond is GREAT images are also being released featuring James Bond, an Aston Martin outside Blenheim Palace as well as a scene from SPECTRE with James Bond in Whitehall.

“We know that the link between tourism and film is a potent one. Recent films have demonstrated that they deliver a real increase in visitor numbers with just under half of our potential visitors to Britain wanting to visit places they have seen featured in films or TV,” said Sally Balcombe, CEO of VisitBritain.

Other highlights include the release of four new 360-degree images of key filming locations in SPECTRE including Blenheim Palace, Camden, Westminster Bridge and City Hall to be promoted internationally through VisitBritain’s social media channels. The 360-degree experiences will give overseas visitors a virtual tour of some of the iconic British locations showcased in SPECTRE. The first will be Blenheim Palace, released today on VisitBritain.com/spectre.

It is the third time that VisitBritain, working in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, has partnered with the Bond franchise to promote the destination to international visitors.

Its 2012 ‘Bond is GREAT’ campaign around the theatrical release of SKYFALL resulted in international promotional coverage reaching 653 million people around the world as well as $7 million worth of exposure for the destination’s brand and partners. That campaign positively affected travel with 16% of people who recalled the Bond is GREAT campaign having booked a trip to Britain and 35% of those who recalled the advert saying they strongly intend to visit Britain in the next three years. Glencoe in Scotland also saw a boost with visitor numbers up 41.7% on 2012.