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TIA to shut London office
The Travel Industry Association of America is shutting its London office as consumers are encouraged to go online to get information about the US.
The office is to close on May 1 with a statement saying: “The cost of maintaining the office in London is high, and because of our limited staffing capabilities there, our ability to co-ordinate throughout all of Europe has been a challenge.
“With this reality in mind, and with the board’s approval, we have decided to close the London office.
“We will look for opportunities to maintain our presence on the continent by partnering with others already in place, similar to the arrangement we have successfully undertaken in the US in the government affairs area with the Travel Business Roundtable.”
The statement added: “TIA has a major effort underway to increase and coordinate spending for the valuable international market, including the UK, which is the largest market.
“To be clear, our strategy is to increase TIA’s effort in the UK and beyond. We’ve laid the foundation through the public-private sector model we’ve developed in the UK. Now is the time to examine how we can build and expand in other markets, while maintaining our presence in the important UK market. Our objective is to increase, not decrease, our presence in Europe and around the world.”
An integral part of US tourism’s sales and marketing efforts has been TIA’s SeeAmerica.org.uk website, which allows UK consumers to get in-depth information about the US, it added.
Meanwhile, TIA and American Express have unveiled a new alliance aimed at promoting international inbound travel to the US.
The TIA’s CEO Roger Dow said: “American Express is a leader in both consumer and corporate travel marketing and building a more strategic approach to working with them will set the stage for TIA’s new direction.”
Report by Phil Davies
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