Tourist bodies to merge next year

The Government has announced it is to merge the British Tourist Authority (BTA) and the English Tourism Council (ETC) next year.

The new organisation, yet to be named, comes into effect on 1 April and will be headed by Tom Wright, currently chief executive of the BTA.

Culture secretary Tessa Jowell said combining the two organisations would allow the Government to develop the marketing team for England more quickly, help to increase domestic tourism, and develop a more coherent marketing agenda.

There has been no marketing body for England since 1997, when the English Tourism Board was replaced by the ETC, which advises regional tourist boards but has no power to market the whole of England to the domestic market.

England attracts 85% of the UK's total revenue from tourism.

ETC chief executive Mary Lynch called the new move "workable", but said it was not the ETC's first choice, which would have been the restoration of its marketing role.

The new organisation will set itself targets for inbound and domestic tourism.

England's tourism deficit has risen rapidly over the last five years. In 2001, the English spent £13b more on holidays abroad than the money received from all tourism in England.

Jowell said the popularity of short European breaks needed to be replicated in the UK and said it was "time to buck the trend of not going further than London".

The merger would reduce overheads, Jowell said. No details of funding have been announced, apart from "a challenge fund" of £10m to be released over the next three years, if matched by private industry.

by Ben Walker