Following a hefty reduction in the UK’s national tourism agency’s budget last year, slashing it to £10.57m – a 41% cut, CMW understands VisitBritain is laying off the majority of its business events team.
VisitBritain/VisitEngland CEO Patricia Yates told CMW: “VisitBritain/VisitEngland is undergoing a reorganisation to ensure we remain a high delivering agency, focused on our delivery priorities, remit and economic growth. Our current funding envelope also means we need to make cuts of about 10% to our salary budget. This includes reviewing our Business Events programme.
“Our focus has been on notifying and consulting with our staff with a formal consultation process underway. We’ll come out with more details to our stakeholders once this process is complete.”
The news comes at a time when VisitBritain has a delegation at the Greater Together Los Angeles programme in the USA promoting the UK as a ‘Great ‘destination for both business and leisure. The country – which actually rose one place in the recently published ICCA Country rankings – is now the only major economy without a fully funded national convention bureau.
It seems the hitherto effective Event Growth Fund programme could be discontinued and the Business Events team bearing the brunt of the budget cut.
Clearly the decision will undermine Britain’s efforts to attract major conferences and business events and is also likely to hinder Britain’s efforts to capitalise on a global events market that is forecast to grow significantly over the next five years.
The news also comes ahead of the upcoming Culture Media and Sport Select Committee inquiry into business events, whose report is due to be published in the coming weeks.
For a government supposedly serious about growth, the decision to cut seems to have handed the advantage to the UK’s business events competitors. The Faroe Islands now has a bigger business events team than Great Britain.
