London & Partners' response to the coronavirus outbreak

Big Ben and Westminster at dusk.
Big Ben and Westminster at dusk. Image courtesy of visitlondon.com/Antoine Buchet.
Learn how our business responded to the coronavirus pandemic.

During the coronavirus pandemic, London & Partners supported the recovery of London’s business communities, tourism industry and the London brand. 

The London & Partners community

We supported the London & Partners community of members, partners and stakeholders through the pandemic with a range of dedicated advice and communications that featured official information, industry updates and data-led insights.

Our work included supporting the Mayor of London’s initiatives, such as the Let's Do London#LondonTogether and #PayItForward campaigns.

These campaigns ran alongside our work with Visit Britain, which determined how we could best work together to aid London’s recovery during and after the coronavirus pandemic. 

Valuable business support in London and overseas

London & Partners worked with business groups, the Mayor of London and other stakeholders to advise on how the government and others could support London’s businesses and assist with the capital’s economic recovery.

In 2020, we launched the London Alliance, a community of businesses from across the city that aimed to drive a rapid recovery in London's economy through the Because I'm a Londoner campaign which was built on confidence, sustainability and responsible spending.

We followed this initiative with our citywide Let's Do London campaign for domestic and international audiences, led by the London Tourism Recovery Board, aimed at generating consumer spend and footfall across London's tourism, retail, hospitality and cultural sectors. 

Our trade and growth programmes moved to a hybrid format to help London’s SME businesses, and our expert teams regularly hosted virtual seminars for our overseas clients.

We also curated business support resources and information to help organisations understand how to access the schemes and support available, as well as collating and sharing positive stories for London’s global business community via our Good News Room.

Engaging content for our audiences

We made it our mission to help London’s culture, leisure and hospitality sectors to survive and thrive during the coronavirus pandemic.

We used our Visit London channels and networks to share engaging content with our audiences, provide the latest coronavirus information, support activities from members of the tourism industry and inspire people to enjoy all the amazing things to do in London. 

In 2020, we created the multi-channel #VirtuallyLondon campaign to showcase the best London live events, culture and activities to experience from home, including virtual museum tours, live event streams, plays and shows, online fitness classes and much more. 

Supporting our people

We took important steps to support the health and wellbeing of our global workforce at London & Partners.

These steps included ensuring that staff had access to mental health first-aiders, running regular wellness activities, opening the London & Partners Academy to enable colleagues to teach and learn new skills, and putting together a programme of fun social activities such as weekly pub quizzes and baking competitions.