Mayor calls for 'London-centric' tourism board to be broken up

NORTH East mayor Kim McGuinness has called for the national tourism agency to be broken up after claiming the 'London-centric' organisation doesn't serve the whole country.

- By ROB PARSONS

The Labour mayor says publicly funded VisitBritain - set up to support the growth of tourism across the UK - "certainly isn't serving the North" and suggested it ought to be called 'Visit London' instead.

A VisitBritain report last month showed the number of international visits to the North East fell 6% last year to 429,000 and the amount of money spent by international visitors fell by 30% to £252m.

But the agency has defended its record, insisting it works with "destinations across the North of England to promote its world class visitor offer".

The number of international visitors to the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber also fell during the same period, while London saw a 3% rise in visits (up to 20.9m) and a 4% increase in spend (up to £17.3bn).

Ms McGuinness recently brought together mayors and political leaders from across the North in Gateshead for the latest meeting of the Great North Partnership, a collaboration to elevate the voice, visibility and economic impact of the North.

And she said a focus of the meeting last weekend in Gateshead - timed to coincide with the Great North Run - was attracting more people to the region.

The mayor said: "One thing we're all hyper-aware of is we've really got to change the way that Britain is promoted abroad from red phone boxes and Paddington Bear and cream tea and really start to tell the story of Britain in a more joined-up way.