Dermot King, Managing Director of Butlin’s will take up the role of Chairman of the Cut Tourism VAT Campaign on behalf of the British Hospitality Association (BHA) with immediate effect.
In his new role, King will join the BHA Board of Directors, working with BHA Chairman Nick Varney, Chief Executive Officer Ufi Ibrahim and the Cut Tourism VAT campaign team. The campaign has a mission to ensure that the UK is more competitive in Europe with a lower tourism tax.
King has been instrumental in driving the Cut Tourism VAT Campaign from its inception and it now has over 1,000 active hospitality and tourism campaigners and over 100 supporting MPs from all political parties.
King was part of the team that audited Bourne Leisure before being headhunted by them in 1989 as their accountant. He moved into operations in 1993 when he became Operations Director of Caravan Parks and was part of the leadership team that led the merger with Rank’s Holiday Division in 2000. He has been a Bourne Leisure Board Director since 2002 with responsibility for Tax, IT and is the Company Secretary. He took over responsibility for Butlin’s in 2010.
Ufi Ibrahim, Chief Executive of the British Hospitality Association said: “We are delighted to welcome Dermot as the new Chairman of the Cut Tourism VAT campaign. The campaign is one of the BHA's top priorities and is attracting a ground-swell of grass roots support from hospitality and tourism businesses of all shapes and sizes right across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
'Dermot's leadership will cement our past success and will help to rally even greater support to champion the reduction of Tourism VAT in the UK. We’d also like to sincerely thank outgoing chairman Graham Wason for his commitment to demonstrating the clear economic and political case for this measure to boost the economy.”
King said, “The evidence behind the benefits of a reduction of tourism VAT to businesses, the national economy and British families has never been clearer. The first year of the new Parliament presents an exciting opportunity, but our real goal is to win the hearts and minds of the British public who don’t realise that they are being taxed harder than almost anyone else in Europe for simply going on holiday in their own country.
'Graham Wason, who previously chaired the campaign, will continue to lead our vital research capabilities which shape the campaign's economic modelling and he remains a key figure in our discussions with HM treasury. ”