Originally Posted by
ATNotts
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!
You got your wish ATN, as SWB states they are moving to Birmingham however when is a move not a move ?
There is a very strong suspicion that the team at VisitBritain were not wholeheartedly behind leaving their roots in London so chose Birmingham to pay lip service.
As "levelling up" narrative at Government level it meets criteria , box ticked, but enables them to work from home but maybe "pop up" to the Birmingham office 2x a week.
Not sure that embraces the strategic change that was required ?
And like ATN i would have been happy to see it relocated to ANYWHERE in the North not necessarily Manchester
York , Liverpool, Chester or even Cumbria !
Does a Birmingham move see them looking North to Chatsworth, North Wales, Chester York and Yorkshire, The Lake District etc or does their vision remain looking back South to The Cotswolds, Oxford, Bicester Outlet Village, across to Cambridge then back to London?
We shall see....
For what its worth here is a position on the
VisitBritain website.
------------------------------------------------
Location and Ways of Working We follow the principle of “Locate for your Day”, which means that we expect people to use their own judgment to decide the best place to work to meet the needs of the business. The majority of our roles can be performed predominantly remotely, however we are not a fully remote organisation as we recognise the importance of face-to-face connection, so you will be expected to spend some time in the office. We have a small office in London and growth plans for a Birmingham office from April 2024, therefore ideally, you must be commutable to Birmingham, and be willing and able to travel as when required at your own cost.