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World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has become the latest major international institution to announce plans to close its headquarters in the UK due to brexit,
The group, which represents the global private sector in travel and Tourism And since its inception it has been based in the UK, with a view to relocating to mainland Europe to benefit from “lower operating costs and”. European Union Single market access”, its President has said.
Manfredi Lefebvre said, “Brexit Potentially one of the main factors in our decision to move our headquarters out of the UK. The benefits of a European head office include lower operating costs, EU single market access and recruitment flexibility of a multilingual talent pool.
“The high standard of research services we provide to our members, governments and stakeholders around the world will remain at the forefront of our work and we are confident we will attract high quality talent to the wider European market across all our services to members globally.”
The decision comes after WTTC’s board endorsed plans to move to Switzerland, Italy and Spain as potential destinations.
This step comes after the Chancellor Rachel Reeves blames the country’s latest economic problems On the ongoing impact of the decision to leave the European Union.
Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has already calculated that Brexit would cause the UK a long-term reduction in GDP of 4 per cent.
WTTC is not the first organization to turn its back on the UK due to Brexit.
Earlier, Bank of America Merrill Lynch made Dublin its new European headquarters as a result of Britain leaving the European Union.
P&O shifted its ship restoration from the UK to Cyprus in the wake of Brexit; Panasonic moved its European headquarters to the Netherlands; MoneyGram moved its headquarters from London to Brussels; And both the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority left the UK.
Dr Mike Galsworthy, chair of the European Movement UK, said: “If they take this step, they could be added to the disappointing list of headquarters that have left the UK and moved to Europe because of Brexit. Such as the European Medicines Agency, which was based in London with taxable annual revenues of over £300m, or the European Banking Authority, or the European headquarters of Sony and Panasonic, or the move by Lloyds and Barclays over the loss of Brexit” Passport rights”
“By 2019, in the wake of the Brexit vote, but before it came into force, a report found that £900 billion in assets of financial firms had been moved out of the UK. Brexit will continue to strip wealth from the UK – something politicians are now ready to publicly admit, after years of watching their shoes and shifting the subject at any mention of the huge damage caused to the UK economy by leaving the EU.”
Answer has been sought from the British government.
However, Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out rejoining the EU, the single market or the customs union but has negotiated a reset deal with Brussels to help overcome economic disruptions caused by Brexit.