§ Lord Pendryasked Her Majesty's Government:
How much they have increased their funding to Visit Britain and its predecessors year-on-year in the past seven years. [HL3987]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyVisit Britain was created in April 2003 following the merger of functions between the British Tourist Authority (BTA) and the English Tourism Council (ETC), formerly the English Tourist Board (ETB). The overall grant-in-aid allocation by the department to these bodies since 1998 is as follows:
123WAIn addition, £14.2 million was awarded to the BTA in 2001–02 and a further £19 million in 2002–03 from the Reserve. £3.8 million was awarded to the ETC in 2001–02 and a further £1 million in 2002–03 from the Reserve. This additional funding from the Reserve was aimed at helping tourism to recover from the impact of the foot and mouth outbreak and the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.
In 2002, the ETC was awarded a further £3.6 million over two years from the Invest to Save budget to support the development of the EnglandNet project to establish an online tourism network for England.