Thursday, 03 May 2007

  VISITBRITAIN JOB CUTS

 The Tourism Society is shocked to learn that under cover of a strategic re-structuring, VisitBritain has been forced to make 80 staff positions redundant, at a time when it is critical to deploy more resources to achieve the potential of inbound tourism to Britain , not less. It is right that VisitBritain should adjust its activities to meet changing circumstances; but cuts are short-sighted. 45 of the staff cuts will be staff in Britain and 35 from overseas offices.

VisitBritain is internationally acclaimed for it's work in promoting tourism to Britain . Despite the devolution of tourism responsibility to Scotland and Wales, and the Mayor of London and English Regional Development Agencies, the work of VisitBritain is essential to maintain the profile of the whole of Britain to incoming tourists, and oversee the work of the England Marketing function, following the Labour Government's abolition of the English national tourist Board. Any weakening of VistBritain's abilities will be felt most at the grass roots of tourism especially in England .

VisitBritain has a vital role to play in selling Britain to the world in the run-up to the Olympic Games in 2012, if the potential £2billion is to be achieved in legacy tourism to Britain . Despite the enormous budgets committed to the Olympic Games themselves, DCMS has not found any funds for VisitBritain to have a strong presence in Beijing , and scraping the necessary budgets together from their pre-Olympic grant must have played a major part in forcing these cuts onto VisitBritain.

David Curtis-Brignell, Chairman of The Tourism Society stated: "the Scottish and Welsh administrations and the Mayor of London have all recognised the vital opportunities that tourism presents. Against this, DCMS has not increased VisitBritain's funding for a decade, effectively cutting VisitBritain's budget by 24%. During this time, Britain , despite the good efforts of VisitBritain, has significantly underperformed world growth rates, and the length of stay and spend by visitors to Britain has reduced".

The high value of the £, high VAT rates compared with our European Competitors, high Visa charges, and Air Passenger Duty are making Britain a very expensive destination for inbound tourists. Britain must compete internationally to attract new visitors. Every pound of grant VisitBritain receives earns over £30 for Britain .

The Tourism Society urges DCMS and the Treasury to urgently reappraise the support for tourism and make the essential investments for the whole of Britain to reap the benefits.

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Note to Editors: The Tourism Society is a non-political association of professionals working in all sectors of Tourism. Among our prime objectives are a wish to ensure the potential economic, social and cultural benefits of Tourism are understood and optimised.

For further information contact: David Curtis-Brignell 020 7872 2472 or Ken Robinson 02380 898980