‘VisitBritain’ – new name for British tourism
From today the “new lead body for tourism in Britain” will now be known as “VisitBritain”.
The name was announced this morning by Dr Kim Howells, the minister for tourism, film and broadcasting, at the British Travel Trade Fair in Birmingham. VisitBritain is the organisation formed from the merger of the BTA and ETC, and will begin its role on 1 April.
VisitBritain chairman, Sir Michael Lickiss told TravelMole: “You have no idea how much trouble goes into creating a new name. It has to be legal, we have to make sure it means the same thing in different languages, and that it sounds good over the phone, and works in different media.”
Conveniently, VisitBritain is the name of the current BTA website.
Mr Lickiss continued: “We were doing a good job of selling Britain abroad, but no-one was selling England in Britain. The ETC didn’t have that marketing role.
“It is crucial because England pulls in 85 percent of tourism business in Britain.”
He added: “The process of pulling the two together, rather than giving the ETC a marketing role has created economies of scale and shared marketing. This does mean that people will lose jobs.”
VisitBritain will have 450 staff, 60 per cent of whom will be based abroad.
Read our previous stories:
27-Feb-2003 Interview: Tom Wright, chief executive, BTA
19-Feb-2003 Tackling bad attitudes towards Britain
1-Nov-2002 BTA and ETC to merge
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