Lord Wigley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wigley on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the respective responsibilities of the home nations’ tourism organisations following restructuring of VisitBritain, in particular regarding the attraction of overseas visitors to each of the four nations.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Tourism is a devolved matter, so it is for each of the home nations to decide on the structure and activities of their national tourist boards.

The Government has decided that the British Tourist Authority should continue to trade as VisitBritain and VisitEngland – with VisitBritain focussed on the promotion of Britain overseas, and VisitEngland focussed on the development of English tourism product. VisitEngland will do this through a new £40m Discover England fund.

Funding for British tourism will now be ring-fenced and the Government is committed to setting challenging targets for VisitBritain to encourage more visitors to explore beyond London. We are actively engaging with the Scottish and Welsh Governments on these targets and operating principles.