New faces at city tourism offices
Ex-NWDA director Nick Brooks-Sykes will join Marketing Manchester from Bath Tourism Plus. Pam Wilsher, head of visitor economy development at Liverpool LEP, is retiring and will be replaced by Peter Sandman from Merseytravel.
Brooks-Sykes, currently chief executive of Bath Tourism Plus, has been appointed to a new role as director of tourism at Marketing Manchester.
He was director of tourism at the North West Development Agency before its closure and head of marketing services at the North West Tourist Board.
He will be responsible for delivering Greater Manchester's tourism strategy in line with the recently updated Destination Management Plan 2014-20 and will be guided by the objectives outlined in the Greater Manchester Strategy.
The appointment coincides with a significant development at Marketing Manchester as it joins the Manchester Growth Company, a newly established group of companies that includes Midas, New Economy, Marketing Manchester, whose purpose it is to drive forward Greater Manchester's economic development in relation to employment, skills, business support, inward investment, international marketing, the visitor economy, policy development and research.
Tourism is worth £6.6bn annually to Greater Manchester and supports almost 84,000 jobs.
Peter Sandman, customer and business development manager at Merseytravel, the combined passenger transport executive and authority for the Liverpool city region, will replace Pam Wilsher in November.
Wilsher has spent 16 years at the Mersey Partnership and its successor the Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership. She is credited with playing a key role in the strong growth of the hotel and tourism sector in the city leading up to and following European Capital of Culture in 2008 and the rejuvenation of the waterfront as a destination.
Both new starters are due to take up their posts in November.
