ETC endured difficult birth, says new chief
The English Tourism Council (ETC), which last July replaced the English Tourist Board (ETB), has endured a "difficult birth", according to its newly announced chief executive.
Mary Lynch, 44, for the time being regional manager for the British Tourist Authority (BTA) in Australasia, believes that the two-year review that hung over the council's predecessor created an adverse situation that "kills creativity and destroys morale".
Lynch, who takes over from acting chief executive Elaine Noble on 1 April, aims to create "an upfront, high-profile organisation" that is "visible, energetic, and not bureaucratic". She said that her starting priorities were to get the new council quickly established, and to underline its differences from its forerunner.
Early projects include promoting the new, harmonised accommodation grading scheme to the public, and ensuring that the Government's many departments, committees and agencies appreciate the value of tourism and build this into their plans.
While the old ETB was responsible for marketing the whole of England, the ETC's role will simply be to collate information and advise the regional boards on how best to promote their own areas. Lynch sees the shift as logical, as each region requires an individual strategy while holiday-makers think in terms of parts rather than the whole.
ETC chairman Alan Britten described Lynch as an "innovative manager". Her background encompasses personnel, industrial relations, training, and sales and marketing with British Airways, Thomson Holidays and the BTA.
by Angela Frewin