VisitBritain has been given an additional £27m of funding to help promote the UK in key overseas markets in a concerted effort to drive greater numbers of visitors to the country over the next four years.

The money will be invested in campaigns that will aim to capitalise on the international attention the UK will receive during 2012 - the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Announcing the funding, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said that over the next four years inbound tourism to the UK aims to attract an extra 4.6 million visitors, spending an additional £2.3bn across the country.

VisitBritain chief executive Sandie Dawe added that the funding will ensure a wide-spread campaign to promote the UK as a destination.

"This additional funding means we will be able to run the largest tourism marketing campaign in our history.

"New Yorkers will see our ads in their papers and on the subway as they travel to work, meaning 72 per cent of our target audience there will have a myriad of opportunities to see our campaign.

"In India and Paris we will also be on cinemas screens, while in China we will reach over 15 million potential visitors through a combination of magazines, subway and station ads, as well as using various online platforms.

"Our targets are ambitious, but inbound tourism is already Britain's third-largest earner of foreign exchange and we know more can be done."

Commenting the newm Tourism Alliance chair, Brigid Simmonds, said: "This new funding comes at an opportune time as the UNWTO predicts that outbound tourism from China and India will collectively increase from 69 million people to 150 million per year by 2020.

"Tourism is already one of the UK’s biggest export industries. This campaign will help generate an additional 60,000 jobs over the next four years."