The city of Warsaw started a promotional campaign in Britain Nov. 12 in conjunction with new Warsaw-Bristol flights launched by the easyJet low-cost airline. The four-week campaign involves the airline's website, the easyJet in-flight monthly magazine and advertisements mailed to easyJet passengers.

Visitors to the www.easyJet.com website can read a feature article about the Polish capital, telling them why a visit to Warsaw is worth their while. Similar articles, complete with photos, have also been published on popular websites including www.teletextholidays.co.uk, www.telegraph.co.uk and www.thisistravel.co.uk.

The November issue of easyJet's in-flight magazine features an ad for Warsaw as a city to discover while traveling in Europe. Warsaw is shown as a city of opportunities and one that greets tourists with the famous Polish hospitality.

The passenger database of easyJet contains 1 million addresses and during the advertising campaign for Warsaw, each passenger will be e-mailed two invitations to the Polish capital. The campaign is primarily addressed to British travelers.

The new easyJet flight is becoming popular in the city of Bristol and its surroundings. Photos of Warsaw adorn the Bristol airport terminal, and many people say that, after a connection to Cracow that was launched last year, the new flight from easyJet is a step toward enlarging Poland's tourist opportunities. easyJet managers say they expect intense tourist and business traffic on the new route.

The online marketing campaign, handled by the City of Warsaw in cooperation with easyJet, is monitored through weekly reports on the number of website hits.

An article on the easyJet website comes with the Warsaw logo and links to other popular tourist websites that promote Warsaw. The website also contains banners advertising Warsaw, complete with special ticket offers. Links on the easyJet website direct web surfers to popular websites about Warsaw, including www.um.warszawa.pl and www.warsawtour.pl.

The joint campaign will continue through mid-December. easyJet's experience from previous promotional campaigns shows that one in five people who read information about new flights actually buys a ticket. Warsaw is thus expecting thousands of tourists from the Bristol area.

Katarzyna Ratajczyk, director of the Promotion Office of the City of Warsaw, says the easyJet campaign will help foreign tourists and potential investors learn more about Warsaw. "We are anticipating many tourists from Bristol and the Bristol area," she said. "We especially invite college students to see the beauty of Warsaw and establish contacts with Polish students who are just as open-minded and curious about the world as their English peers."