London’s occasional Mayor Boris Johnson is facing calls to explain the future funding of the capital’s tourism strategy.

This follows the reports that an ‘oversight’ by the Mayor resulted in the removal of funding for London’s tourism agency, Visit London.

On 29th October the Government singled out London as the first region in the country to suffer immediate cuts to its regional development agency, the LDA. The £15 million LDA funding for Visit London is due to end in March 2011.

According to the Evening Standard, “Senior staff have privately accused Mr Johnson of “taking his eye off the ball” over LDA funding”.

The work of Visit London is estimated to be worth £1.2 billion to London over 4 years.

Ken Livingstone today slammed Boris in a statement:

It is simply unforgiveable that London faces the prospect of not having a tourism organisation in the year before the world’s biggest sporting event comes to the capital in 2012.

Thousands of businesses in London rely on tourism and overseas investment. Boris Johnson’s ‘oversight’ could cost London millions in lost tourism revenue and threaten jobs at a time of great economic uncertainty and government cuts.

In a letter to the Standard last week, two dozen business and university leaders said it would be “unthinkable” to leave the capital without cash for inward investment, tourism or attracting overseas students.

(partly from a press release)

Reader comments

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