Four in every five respondents from China and India said they were more likely to want to visit Britain in light of publicity surrounding the Games.

Moreover, 63 per cent of Chinese and 60 per cent of Indian consumers polled said they would like to buy more British products.

The research was based on an online consumer survey of 6,000 adults in six markets, including China and India (pictured below, Chinese President Hu Jintao with Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh), which took place in March.


Along with future Olympic Games hosts Brazil in 2016 and Russia in 2014, India and China are two of the four so-called "BRIC economies", identified by economists as critical to the path of global growth.

Nigel Wixcey, UK head of consumer business at Deloitte, said: "As the global population is evolving, so consumer spending power is shifting.

"The emerging middle classes of China and India are increasingly powerful consumers of Western goods – as visiting tourists and, increasingly, as strong consumer markets develop in their home countries.

"This trend will continue to accelerate over the next few years."

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