VisitBritain job losses upset tourism insiders

The chairman of Tourism Alliance, Bob Cotton, has expressed consternation at the loss of 136 jobs at Britain’s national tourism agency, VisitBritain.

The recently announced cuts represent 40 per cent of the positions at the head office of VisitBritain, and 25 per cent of staff posted at overseas locations.

The restructuring follows the increased transfer of public responsibility for the support of tourism to London, the English regions, Scotland and Wales over recent years and also funding cuts made by the government for the tourism agency.

When informed about the upcoming restructuring of VisitBritain, which would be the fourth in just five years, Cotton commented: “Even more disappointing is that the decision has been announced at a time when the industry is still being consulted by VisitBritain on the British Framework Review, which is considering how the organisation can best operate with the context of future government funding.”

“One can only assume that VisitBritain has been forced into yet another round of redundancies as a direct result of the government’s inability to take tourism seriously.”

Cotton predicted that the restructuring and resulting cuts would negatively impact on the work of VisitBritain in promoting inbound and domestic tourism.

For more information on this story please visit www.tourismalliance.com.