Chief executive announces VisitBritain restructure

Tom Wright, chief executive of VisitBritain, announced earlier this month that the tourism body has started staff consultation on a planned re-organisation which will involve job losses.

He said, "Our focus will be on representing the collective interests of Britain’s nations and regions, adding value to the travel industry and its public sector agencies and delivering shared platforms and distribution services overseas, while enabling the development of a robust strategy for English tourism."

"The restructure takes into account the devolution of tourism over the last few years as well as the recent cut to our Government funding and follows an extensive review of our activities as part of the ongoing British Tourism Framework Review (BTFR)."

A 40% reduction to around 135 staff posts in London is proposed. Staff posts in overseas offices are expected to be reduced by 25% to around 145, with reductions mainly occurring in near-European markets in which the devolved tourism agencies typically now market their respective brands.

Wright said, ‘VisitEngland will be strengthened to become more of a stand-alone strategic leadership body but will continue to co-locate with VisitEngland and share business support services.’

VisitBritain will provide full details of the new structure in October when the findings of the BTFR will also be announced.

For the latest information on the Review visit the British Tourism Framework Review website at www.tourism-review.co.uk.