Navpi,
You hit the nail firmly on the head. We need regional tourism bodies with enough clout to get themselves heard equally with London.
The first thing to do would be to shift Visit England, or whatever they call it this week, well outside London and rather than relocate the execs recruit a team that doesn't hanker for London. Then there is the question of where to relocate to. You'd say Manchester, I would say a Midlands city. Probably somewhere in 'The North' would be preferable, perhaps Leeds or Sheffield?
So far as regional tourism organisations are concerned we need a proper regionalised set up rather than parochial cities and counties all competing with each other. So Northwest. Northeast, Midlands. Southwest etc.
Sorry, well off the topic of MAN but the subject is worthy of discussion almost anywhere outside London so Manchester is as good a place as any!