One of Australian newsrooms' favourite stories is the reported 'Man Drought' in their country. No, this isn't traditional Ozzie men getting a collective thirst on for some Victoria Bitter, but rather a growing demographic shift in the population. Australian women now outnumber their male counterparts by 100,000. Why is this happening? No one is sure, although one theory often-quoted is the tendency of young Ozzie men to travel and then work overseas (almost all......

There was a bit of an awkward silence at London House in Beijing when the image of Myra Hindley flashed up during a video meant to promote London. A six-minute video by Visit London was playing on a loop at London House for a private audience. Unfortunately, while panning through an art gallery, one of the paintings featured is that of Myra Hindley's mug shot done in children's handprints. Though not a part of......

Barging through the throngs of camera-wielding tourists in Leicester square of a Saturday afternoon, it might not seem that London is in dire need of more visitors. But Visit London is aiming to do just that, by launching a £4m advertising campaign this weekend to attract more sightseers to the capital. The worldwide campaign launches as China hands over the Olympic cycle to Britain on Sunday, and will highlight London’s virtues as a holiday......

To London House (well, not literally: us what blog from our garrets by a candle’s flicker don’t actually have a budget, let alone one which stretches to Beijing), where a programme of upbeat seminars and lectures on lovable London is underway. The installation has been set up with a view to promoting our wondrous city for matters non-Olympian. Business investment, tourism, study-trips, that sort of thing. You will recall that we reported on Boris’ Olympic......

Fears that UK tourism won't be funded well enough to take advantage of the 2012 Olympics were broached today in a report from the Parliamentary Committee on Culture, Media and Sport with the £9m cut to Visit Britain's budget coming in for criticism. The report tells us that tourist trade isn't anticipating a major influx for the Games itself but the presence of 20,000 journalists in town to cover the event certainly provides an......

Good News, Dance Fans - London's Big Dance will be going ahead as planned this year. New Mayor Boris had lost no time in appointing a supremo to review cultural events planned by the Greater London Authority, so at Londonist we are pleased to hear that this jewel in the capital's 2008 cultural calendar has not been pulled. We are even more chuffed to get wind that the launch of the countdown to the......

London is especially lovely in the summer months, so it comes as no surprise that visitors would want to come and bask in the capital’s loveliness while the sun is [usually] shining and the weather is [generally] mild. But this summer might be a bit different; according to Visit London, overseas tourism is expected to grow a mere 0.3%, the lowest since 2002. The main factor to blame is the credit crunch; while previously......

The United States remains tops in London’s tourism market, according to stats released by Visit London, as leaders of the tourism industry convene this week at London’s annual World Travel Market. This, despite the dollar’s worst performance against the pound in 26 years. That whimper you hear every morning? A collective sigh from your American coworkers, mates, and visitors, as they monitor the daily exchange rate. The American market, though continuing to send forth......

Blimey. It's as if the benevolent lords of music, film and free outdoor events put all their goodies into a bag, shook it up and tipped it out over Trafalgar Square. On Thursday night, like on many nights so far in the India Now festival, hundreds of Londoners will be brought together for an Indian summer night. A huge number of cushion and rug and picnic-carrying people are expected to fill the square's space......

Though we love London for being so damn urban and gritty, sometimes when the sun shines and the air is warm, we find ourselves longing for the quieter, greener setting of a village. Debate continues over London's composition; is it one sprawling megalopolis or a series of interconnected villages, each with its own identity and dialect? We're siding with the village idea for today and tomorrow, as Trafalgar Square will be covered with turf......

Lesser known areas of the capital may be in store for an influx of tourists. A report from the London Assembly is urging Visit London to promote attractions outside Central London, and the Chair of the Assembly’s Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee, Dee Doocey, fully supports the findings: "Outer London is home to a range of attractions that are less obvious but just as worth a visit as those that central London......

Last week, as The Sultan's Elephant brought theatre and spectacle onto the streets and straight to the people, an apt debate titled West End Theatre Should Be Sunk In The Atlantic. took place at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark. Time Out’s Deputy Theatre Editor, Rachel Halliburton. David Rosenberg, Director of the Shunt Collective and Phil Willmott, Artistic Director of The Steam Industry represented the non-West End theatre side and argued for the swift......

If you were worried that foreign tourists might be deterred from visiting our fair city after the 7 July bombings, you only knew the half of it. It turns out even some Londoners are too frightened to come to London. Visit London is encouraging Londoners to come into the centre and spend money. Keep spending, folks! Dig deep for victory! The centre section of the A to Z is our roadmap to peace! Remember......

In Los Angeles, tourists are regularly accosted by street-corner vendors selling "maps of stars' homes". These should really be called "maps of stars' gates" since that's all you're likely to see - no peeks of Robert De Niro putting out the rubbish, alas. Now, it seems, Visit London is bringing the trend to our fair city by having "celebrities" point out their favourite sights and sounds in their particular corner of the metropolis. (Here's......

Celebrities and "leading figures from the worlds of culture, tourism and the media" are flocking to support the plans to install a beach by the London Eye this summer, the Standard gushes. Of course, you heard it here first, but now that the likes of Michael Winner and Peter Stringfellow have thrown their weights behind the project, it's an absolute inevitability. The "outside cinema" aspect of these plans is absolutely brilliant; Londonist has very......

Londonist always wonders what people mean when they come back from holiday saying "..oh and the people were ever so friendly". What did they do? Buy you a pint, give you advice on your love life and offer to let you sleep on their sofa if you ever need somewhere to stay? More often than not, "friendly" just means "not overtly antagonistic", which is why it's quite a shock to discover today that eight......

Visit London ("London's official website" apparently....pfff, yeah right) are now offering a "a movie map" based on the film Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. The map is designed to "pinpoint the hang outs of the capital’s most famous singleton" and includes attractions such as Rigby & Peller on Conduit Street, the "ultra hip" Light bar in Shoreditch and the Italian fountains in Kensington Gardens. You can download it here (PDF file). Londonist thinks Visit......