Let’s Do London programme

The challenge 

Before the pandemic, London was the third most visited city on the planet. London’s economy accounts for a quarter of the UK’s total economic output. In 2019, West End and St James’s wards produced £50 billion gross value added. That is more than any other local authority area, including the City of London.  

The Covid-19 pandemic was a perfect storm for central London’s economy by:  

• threatening people’s physical health and forcing them to be socially distanced  

• closing all restaurants, nightclubs, bars, cinemas, music venues, theatres, museums, galleries, shops and everything in between  

• making people work from home where possible  

• stopping international tourists from coming  

• creating job insecurity, furloughing and unemployment  

• having no clear date when it would end.  

London’s economy has always relied on huge levels of both domestic and international tourism. One in seven jobs are in tourism or hospitality, and one in five jobs in retail. As such getting tourists back to London is vital for our economic revival and protecting the city’s jobs. The pandemic has created huge challenges for central London’s economy, reducing footfall from office workers, UK domestic tourists and international visitors. With visitor numbers down, London’s culture, hospitality and tourism sector have been amongst the hardest hit.  

London’s Central Activities Zone faces a bigger challenge than its counterparts in major cities such as New York and Paris. This is due to lower numbers of people living in the heart of the city and a greater reliance on visitors, including tourists and workers. Recent Centre for Cities data reveals that in 2021, London’s footfall was only at 53 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, compared to 79 per cent in Birmingham, 73 per cent in Manchester and 64 per cent in Glasgow due to the drop in tourist numbers.

The solution

On 10 May 2021, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched Let’s Do London. It was the biggest ever domestic tourism campaign to support the reopening of central London, protect jobs and kickstart growth. Let’s Do London had the following objectives:  

• signal confidence
• drive footfall  
• increase spend.

The marketing campaign was commissioned by the London Tourism Recovery Board and delivered by London & Partners and the Greater London Authority (GLA). It was also supported by Transport for London and key stakeholders across central London.  

The aim was to increase consumer spend and footfall in the leisure, hospitality, retail and cultural sectors to help drive London’s recovery. 

 

Alongside the marketing campaign, we created and led a year-long programme of events and activations across central London with partners. This series of curated seasons showcased the best of London’s culture, events, public realm, retail and hospitality across key visitor themes. 

 

It created an opportunity to discover and experience the city like never before. 

The impact

‘Let’s Do London’ generated £81 million towards London’s economy, attracted 330,000 additional visitors and supported over 700 businesses. We’ve also helped more than 1,735 organisations and creative freelancers.  

Over the last 10 months, we delivered over 500 individual events, to bring fresh colour, light, and energy to our city. We brought the Northern Lights into the Square Mile and showed free films in Trafalgar Square and we placed outdoor pop-up theatre, circus, dance and music performances all over central London. We’ve also brightened up road crossings and shone a new light on the City of London with five amazing installations. 

See below details of the outcomes and impact of the Let’s Do London campaign and events programme: 

• five hundred programme events and activations delivered in 10 months  

• attracting over £4.5 billion in media reach and 1,908 press and media articles 

• supported over 1,700 organisations and creative freelancers 

• one thousand seven hundred and thirty-five organisations and freelancers supported 

• ninety-three per cent positive sentiment of target audiences participating in the programme events 

• fifty-five per cent of partner organisations benefited from increased publicity 

• forty-five per cent of partner organisations benefited from additional opportunities  

• ninety per cent of partner organisations agreed that Let’s Do London provided additional value to the wider local economy. 

How is the new approach being sustained?

On 9 May 2022, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched London’s biggest ever tourism campaign in New York City. Investing £10 million to attract more Londoners, domestic and international visitors back in 2022. 

The recovery of international tourism is central to London’s economic recovery. Tourism accounts for as many as one in seven jobs in London and contributes almost 12 per cent of the city’s GDP. London, and specifically its Central Activities Zone, the main destination for many international visitors, has an essential part to play in recovery. This includes providing jobs and delivering growth. London’s recovery will rely on getting international tourists to return to central hospitality, retail, and cultural districts as restrictions ease. London & Partners is working with the London Tourism Recovery Board and the city’s wider tourism industry to deliver a recovery campaign. The aim is to support the reopening of London to international audiences from France, Germany and the US. 

Alongside the international campaign, London & Partners will also be building on the legacy of the Let’s Do London domestic tourism campaign used to attract more domestic tourists back to the capital. It will drive confidence in the capital as a destination and promote cultural and sporting activities happening in London this year.  

Building on this, the Mayor has pledged a further £2 million investment in Let’s Do London. Alongside the international and domestic campaign led by London & Partners, the GLA are leading on a £1 million complimentary campaign aimed at driving confidence targeting Londoners, daytrippers from home counties as well as domestic and international tourists already in London. This will promote everything that makes London unique, including existing events, cultural and sporting moments in summer / autumn 2022.

Lessons learned

Use Arts & Culture to ignite economic recovery  

There are lots of examples of how culture can develop the local economy and placemaking of a city.  

However, what is clear from the Let’s Do London events programme is that arts and culture can be used as a central plank for economic recovery; to increase footfall and spend back into an area as well as supporting social recovery by building confidence to get back to life in London.  

Create iconic, free, open air and safe feeling events 

By prioritising free outdoor activities that occupied and animated public places, squares and pop-up spaces, we minimised the risk of events being cancelled if COVID-19 guidance changed. This also ensured that events were inclusive to people who weren’t yet confident to return to indoor venues. 

Use real time data to inform tactical programming  

Working closely with the GLA’s City Intelligence Unit provided valuable access to live footfall traffic and spend from across London’s Central Activities Zone. This offered a new model of programming events to be able to respond to economic ‘cold spot’ sites. Developing the programme in an agile way meant that we could respond quickly to the change in COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines.  

We’re all in this together  

Never before has London’s culture, nightlife, hospitality and retail businesses worked together as they did for Let’s Do London. Let’s Do London would not have been a success without this extraordinary collective effort, and it showed the world that, in tough times and adversity, London comes together. 

Building back better 

The challenge is whether we can continue to do this when we not in a global pandemic. How can London’s culture, hospitality and retail come together to support London to Build Back Better to become more resilient and sustainable – both economically and environmentally?

Contact

Mike Clewley, Programme Lead, Let’s Do London, email: [email protected]