Government Cuts Threaten 2012 Tourism Target

The £2.1bn tourism revenue figure predicted to be generated by the London 2012
Olympics is unlikely to be met after the government reduced its funding to
tourism body VisitBritain by 18%.

The decision by the government to significantly reduce the funds it allocates
to British tourism has led the industry to claim that it can no longer afford to
run any advertising in the years leading up to the London 2012 Games.

Tourism alliance UK-Inbound said it was ‘horrified’ by the announcement and
warned that the £2.1bn in tourism revenue predicted to be generated by the 2012
Olympics will be ‘impossible’ to achieve if the tourist board has insufficient
resources.

‘The DCMS has lost the plot,’ said UKInbound chief executive Stephen Dowd.
‘James Purnell has emasculated VisitBritain and our competitors will be rubbing
their hands in glee.’

In May, VisitBritain was forced to make redundancies to save £4m to offset
the government’s failure to increase its overseas marketing funding, but it will
be forced to make further cuts in areas such as research to mitigate a drop to
£40.6m by 2010/11.