Changing of the guard at Visit Britain

Not only are there changes at the top at Visit Britain in Australia, with Michael McCormick, VB’s current manager leaving the land down under for a new role in London and Judy Watson appointed in his place as a locally employed manager, not a posted expat manager for the first time in many years, taking over what is without doubt Australia’s top NTO, but Visit Britain’s global marketing focus is also changing significantly.

Prior to his departure shortly, Michael said that Visit Britain has undergone an organisational review with VisitBritain, Asia-Pacific representing China, India, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore , Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and with the recent global restructuring, Middle East and South Africa.

He said that a key factor in the organisational review is that three of the world’s biggest economies by purchasing power are in Asia, including China, Japan and India, with China and India the world’s most populous countries and home to the world’s top three fastest growing cities, presenting VisitBritain with a dynamic population to target, but also an audience which is both difficult to segment, and a challenge to reach. 

He added that during the past two years VisitBritain has successfully started marketing operations in Malaysia and Thailand and plans to assess further expansion into countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam, in addition to reflecting the strategy of building an innovative online capacity, with these a virtual presence mostly through the web rather than the opening of representative offices.  He also said that nine out of ten of VB’s top markets would be in Asia Pacific.

Michael stressed though that with Asia Pacific becoming an even greater focus for VB than some other markets, the Australia and New Zealand markets were extremely important to VB, with Australia the largest market within Asia Pacific, 6th most important in terms of spend on a global basis and New Zealand the 4th largest within Asia Pacific and both markets continuing to grow and perform extremely well.

Keith Beecham, who is currently General Manager for Asia Pacific, will now become Regional Director reporting directly to the CEO based in London and to support him, Garry White will move from Northern Europe to a new senior role in Singapore to lead India, the Middle East and other developing markets within Asia Pacific.  Judy as Manager of Australia and New Zealand will continue to report to Keith Beecham in Hong Kong.

Michael also confirmed that as part of this review and to maximise on the London Olympics in 2012, a number of senior VB staff were being recalled to London, including himself and he would be undertaking a new and very exciting new role in London as of Head of Partnerships, bringing together a range of commercial partners in both domestic and international arenas

Michael said that his family had already relocated to London and that he had been keen to ensure a very smooth handover of responsibilities in Australia, being particularly pleased that Judy was able to take up her new job prior to his return to London.

TravelMole wishes Michael the very best in his new role in London and also Judy in her new role in Australia and New Zealand.

Report by The Mole