UKinbound welcomes new London agency
A new London agency to promote tourism, investment and help international students has been welcomed by UKinbound.
London mayor Boris Johnson announced earlier today that the new £14m-a-year organisation, provisionally called Promote London, will take over the work of Visit London, Think London and Study London next April when their contracts with the London Development Agency (LDA) end.
The LDA is to be shut down in 2012 as part of the government’s spending review.
Mayor Johnson said Promote London will enable him to take a more ‘co-ordinated and strategic approach to international promotion’ leading up to and during the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Speaking to the BBC Johnson said: "This new agency will play a vital role in ensuring that we can continue to foster London’s reputation across the globe as a fantastic place to live, work, study and visit."
Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas is the interim chair of Promote London and Danny Lopez, currently a group director at the LDA, is the interim chief executive.
UKinbound welcomed the end of a period of great uncertainty for tourism promotion in London but stressed that inbound tourism must be represented at the highest level in the new agency.
Chief executive Mary Rance said: "Inbound tourism is the third largest exporter contributing £19bn of export revenue to the UK economy.
"London is the main international gateway for inbound tourism and Visit London’s role in driving visitor numbers and revenue to the economy has been crucial in attracting visitors to the UK.
"The transition to the new Agency must be seamless. It is vital not to lose the momentum in the coming year and in the run up to the 2012 Olympics when there is a real danger that our regular international visitors will stay away.
"Strong proactive tourism promotion is essential to ensure that the aspirational legacy of the 2012 Games is achieved."
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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