UK event leaders are slamming the government’s decision to cut tourism spending, warning that it will “undermine” the already underfunded sector.
The decision to slash VisitBritain’s budget by 41% was made by the GREAT Programme Board, which is charged with driving economic growth in the country.
“It’s an appalling lack of judgement,” Tamar Beck told Vendelux. Beck is the CEO of Gleanin, an event management platform based in Nottingham.
“To stimulate UK growth, not only should we continue to invest in attracting visitors, tourists and events to this country, but we should be aiming for higher numbers,” she added.
The decision has raised alarms for tourism and event advocates, who say the industry is just gaining steam after cratering during COVID.
In a statement dated April 10, UKEvents Chair Glenn Bowdin stood by VisitBritain.
“The reduction in GREAT funding undermines the efforts to showcase the UK’s diverse and vibrant events on the global stage and attracting major business events to the UK,” he said. “We stand firmly with VisitBritain and urge the Government to reconsider this decision.”
A couple days earlier, a consortium of tourism groups released an open letter asking the government for more clarity.
The letter, addressed to Member of Parliament Ellie Reeves on April 8, was sent by the Tourism Alliance.
“The ability of our national tourist board to stimulate demand and compete with other countries for valuable inbound visitors is hampered by their already small budget, which the decision to reduce further this week, again, simply compounds,” the letter reads.
The tourism board’s budget has now been slashed from £18.85 million last year to £10.57 million, The Guardian reports.
UKEvents, a trade association, is not directly funded by the government. It represents the interests of event planners, marketers, venues and caterers, all of which depend on a robust tourism board to promote the UK as an appetizing destination. The group reports that events contributed £61.6 billion to the UK’s economy in 2023, a figure that includes trade shows, games, music festivals and travel meetings.
As such, tourism professionals and their lobbyists are confused by the government’s strategy.
The UK attracted just 38 million visitors in 2023, down from 41 million in 2019. The government has set an ambitious new target of 50 million visitors by 2030.
But while leaders are focused on economic growth, the recent cuts are poised to hamper a critical industry that supports 4.2 million jobs in the country, according to a recent report by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
Tourism Alliance Executive Director Richard Toomer summed up the seemingly incoherent budget maneuver in his letter to the MP Reeves.
“UK tourism is suffering from two important ills. On the one hand we are poor as far as cost competitiveness is concerned: the World Economic Forum ranks the UK as 113th out of 118 countries for the price competitiveness of our tourism offer. The recent ETA and visa fee increases just compound the problem.
“And on the other hand, the ability of our national tourist board to stimulate demand and compete with other countries for valuable inbound visitors is hampered by their already small budget, which the decision to reduce further this week, again, simply compounds,” he added.
Other industry voices have put it more bluntly.
Speaking to Vendelux, Beck argues that the UK is in a good position to siphon off business from the United States.
“We have a unique opportunity right now to market this country as a major destination for events and tourism given the issues and uncertainty in the US,” she said, referring to the Trump administration’s distaste for immigration as well as their interest in raising tariffs that could make events more expensive to produce.
Nick De Bois, chair of the decimated VisitBritain, told The Independent that the UK government and treasury “just don’t get tourism.”
Julia Simpson, president of the WTTC, told the PA News Agency: “We are sabotaging ourselves.”
UK leaders have given little insight into their thinking. In a statement, a government spokesperson defended VisitBritain’s recent ad campaign and vowed to “continue to work closely with partners to optimise the campaign’s resources.”
