Around five million American TV viewers were offered a unique insight into Royal households last week in an effort to increase Britain’s allure as a tourism destination and allay security fears raised by the July bombings.

ABC’s Good Morning America is being broadcasted live from three of the Queen’s historic royal residences – Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh – followed by an exclusive interview about the British tourism industry with the Duke of York.

Tom Wright, chief executive of VisitBritain, said: “British tourism is facing a challenging time and although 2004 was record year for visits by Americans – our most important market – have still not returned to 2000 levels.

“The royal family’s popularity in the USA, as well as royal heritage and our historic palaces and attractions, will help us to remind consumers that there are still plenty of reasons to visit the UK.”

The television event coincides with a meeting between tourism minister James Purnell and a group of industry chiefs.

In a meeting at the Tower of London on 6 October, the minister will meet with members of the Tourism Industry Emergency Response (TIER) group, the chief executives of the BHA and UKinbound – Bob Cotton and Stephen Dowd – as well as Robin Broke, director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.