VisitBritain chief executive Sally Balcombe will now take on the top job at VisitEngland following the departure of James Berresford who quit earlier this month.
The chief executive of Marketing Manchester, Andrew Stokes, has been brought in to the newly created role of interim director, England.
A spokesperson said: “We are committed to having a strong voice for England within a more aligned organisation. Sally Balcombe is the Chief Executive of VisitBritain and Visit England and obviously we have just made a great appointment of Drew as the interim director of England who comes to us having been chief executive of one of the major destination management organisations.”
As part of the changes a 30-day internal global consultation will take place with a number of roles at risk.
“Within the new structure there are new jobs and opportunities for staff. We will consult over the next month to ensure all staff are treated fairly and to minimise compulsory redundancies,” the spokesperson added.
“Across both organisations we have 44 people at risk, 20 at risk and in a pool, and 188 who are being transferred or whose jobs are unaffected. We have 64 vacancies.”
Last year a review of both VisitBritain and VisitEngland recommended that both organisations be formally split.
The review was carried out under the previous coalition government and under the new Conservative administration the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has decided to do the opposite and move towards further integration.
Although DCMS’s overall budget was cut by 5% in last autumn’s spending review, an additional £40 million was secured as part of a Discover England Fund to boost tourism across England.
The BTA said the changes had been driven by a change in “the way consumers book their travel and consume their media”.
After the news broke that James Berresford planned to quit, it became clear that major changes were underway. The travel industry will just have to wait and see what the changes mean in the long-term.
