Fully Revised and Updated for 2007

Britain: The Travel Trade Guide provides and unrivalled overview of the key elements of the UK tourism industry, describing both the national and regional structure through which tourism in Britain is organised and funded.

There is still much change taking place in this structure with the development of various new delivery and enabling bodies as well the introduction of new destination management organisations, area marketing partnerships and other similar organisations. The function and structure of each of these bodies varies region by region, but each is described along with a listing of the key personnel and contact details, as well as of the national umbrella organisations.

Uniquely, Britain: The Travel Trade Guide also lists every local authority tourism office and tourism marketing consortium in Britain. It also lists every Tourist/Visitor Information Centre/Point and any travel trade or group publications for an area. The Guide is organised by the nine Regional Development Agency areas, plus sections for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, since this is the way funding is channelled into tourism by central government.

Each area begins with a map, reproduced at the same scale and a description of the regional tourism structure. The listings themselves begin with any tourism promotion organisations that serve the whole region, or several counties within it, and are then organised by county.

The publication also contains listings of national organisations involved with tourism, maps of Britain’s motorway network with service areas, the national rail network with individual operators’ routes, and ferry operators and their routes around Great Britain. Additionally, there is an explanation of the current hotel grading system, which is also changing. The Guide concludes with a listing of travel trade shows for 2007, an index of places and organisations, listings of Tourist Information Centres and an index of advertisers.