Jonathan Sloan becomes interim chair and Julie Greenhill interim vice chair of Visit USA Association (UK).

Sloan, executive vice-president at MMGY GLobal, and Greenhill, director at Greg Evans Consultancy, will serve in their rules until March 2022.

"These have been a challenging few weeks for those close to Sarah Lax but we know she would want us to look forward and make sure that the future of Visit USA (UK) was in strong hands during this important period for the global travel market," said Tracey Spuyman, chief executive of Visit USA (UK).

"Jonathan and Julie will be working with the board and Visit USA members to make sure that the US has a strong voice when travel from the UK resumes."

Both Sloan and Greenhill bring significant UK-US travel experience to their roles, and were both serving members of the Visit USA (UK) board.

Sloan previously chaired the association from 2013 to 2017 and was succeeded by Lax, who passed away last month owing to cancer. Visit USA (UK) at the time paid tribute to her "unwavering positive outlook and optimism" despite her diagnosis.

Visit USA (UK) will host its first live and in-person event, the Visit USA Summer Affair, on Wednesday 1 September, in place of last year’s Independence Day Ball.