BOURNEMOUTH tourism is now reaching the dizzying heights of the capital as part of a new marketing campaign to promote the town.

The Coastal Business Improvement District unveiled a series of posters and billboards last Monday (OCT 19), some of which are even gracing the walls of underground stations in London.

Stefan Krause, Coastal BID manager, said it forms part of an ongoing collaboration with AFC Bournemouth to ensure the town's current popularity - in terms of Premiership football following as well as tourism.

One of the billboards, displayed at Paddington station, shows striker Callum Wilson celebrating scoring a goal on the beach with Bournemouth Pier behind him.

Mr Krause said: "We started at the end of spring to liaise with AFC Bournemouth and they did a couple of presentations to stakeholders, marketing groups and the BID.

"We didn't want to miss the opportunity to promote Bournemouth and so we had a professional shoot done on the beach with them. Then we looked at London billboards; We had to look at fulfilling all of our requirements - not just for us but for AFCB as well. We took a chance and we could achieve it on time."

Mr Krause said it was unfortunate when Wilson ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament during Bournemouth's 2-1 defeat at Stoke in September but Wilson's popularity meant he was still the ideal poster boy.

"We chose him because he's one of the figure heads and he's one of the well-known personalities of the club," Mr Krause added. "It's a really sad story about the injury but we know he will come back and I'm still curious if someone else will achieve what he has. You can see the enthusiasm on his face; that's why we chose this image."

The current campaign aims to promote Bournemouth in the autumn but there won't be any Bournemouth players on the winter posters because of availability.

Stefan said: "It's also to create the Christmas feel. It was very difficult to close that gap between AFCB and Christmas and to bring that together. The winter poster won't have a player on it but we will continue our partnership with AFCB on our posters. The feedback we receive is really great.

"We will explore what we can do next spring and autumn."