Tourism officials in Great Britain will spend millions of pounds over the next four years to sustain an anticipated boost from the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. London will host the Summer Games beginning on July 27 of this year.

The next phase of the GREAT ad campaign will see buses, subways, and airwaves in global cities like Paris, Berlin, and New York City plastered with images of Stonehenge and the English countryside. In all, the UK Government is expected to spend more than £125 million on the campaign – the most ever spent on tourism in its history, according to the BBC.

Why spend so much when a global Olympic audience will already be paying close attention? It turns out that hosting the Olympics doesn’t always guarantee the type of sustained tourism boom one might expect, according to the report.

Officials in Athens, Beijing, and Sydney have all admitted to a bit of a letdown following their respective years of hosting. By spending so much up front, Great Britain hopes to stay ahead of the curve and sustain the Olympic boost well after the Closing Ceremonies.

CC Flickr photo credit: FutUndBeidl