Britain's national tourism agency has agreed a marketing partnership with one of the world's leading airlines in a bid to attract more visitors from the Gulf region.
VisitBritain signed the one-year deal with Turkish Airlines, which flies to more countries than any other airline.
The partnership will begin with a promotional campaign in Saudi Arabia to encourage people to explore different parts of Britain.
Last year the UK welcomed 144,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia who spent a total of £365 million, according to the international passenger survey.
Turkish Airlines connects seven cities in Saudi Arabia with London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh, via its Istanbul hub.
British tourism chiefs hope this will help almost double the number of visitors from the Middle Eastern country by 2020.
VisitBritain chief executive, Sally Balcombe, said: "Saudi is growing very fast. The emerging middle class in Saudi is growing and travelling enormously.
"We reckon that market will be in our top 10 by 2020, so this is a market that we are interested in.
"Turkish Airlines helps us target that growing market in a way that we feel nobody else can."
Turkish Airlines flies to over 100 countries and is the world's seventh largest carrier in terms of passenger numbers.
Speaking at an event in Westminster to launch the partnership, Ms Balcombe added: "We're a relatively small organisation. For us, these partnerships really extend our reach and our voice. They help us to get to customers and markets that perhaps we couldn't get to."
The campaign with Turkish airlines will also spread to India, which is one of Britain's most important emerging markets. There were 400,000 visits from the country in 2014, up by 4% on the previous year.
VisitBritain has launched a partnership with a new Bollywood movie which was filmed in parts of northern England.
Shaandaar is released in India this week and it is hoped cinemagoers will want to visit the locations, such as Castle Howard and Saltburn Pier, North Yorkshire.
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