The new lead body for tourism, VisitBritain, has been welcomed as a step in the right direction for British tourism - providing the government recognises its importance and allocates appropriate funding.

The new body, formed by the merger of the British Tourist Authority and the English Tourism Council was launched by minister for tourism, Kim Howells, at the British Travel Trade Fair last week and will have the dual role of marketing England within Britain and marketing Britain to the rest of the world.

This will be the first time England has had its a voice since the marketing aspect of the ETB was lost when it became the ETC in 1999.

Since the merger was announced by Tessa Jowell last October, there has been concern, however, that England would be part of the British marketing organisation, rather than having its own marketing body, but Howells has stressed the two marketing bodies will be quite separate: 'VisitBritain has two separate jobs,' he said, 'with two sets of staff and two budgets.'

This has not convinced the Wales Tourist Board and VisitScotland, however, who fear they may be sidelined.

Jonathan Jones, chief executive of the Wales Tourist Board said, however: 'We'd have preferred to see two bodies - one for Britain overseas and one for England in Britain with the same powers we have. We do have concerns that the joining of Britain and England could fuel the view England and Britain are synonymous.'

Philip Riddle, chief executive of VisitScotland, said: 'We have a lot of reservations about why the England marketing body is linked with VisitBritain as it could dilute the British side of the organisation.'

The Tourism Society's Adrian Clarke has also said he supports neither the link-up of the two groups nor the methodology behind it. He said the society had called in the past for parity of treatment between England, Wales and Scotland and for the restoration of the ETB's marketing remit.

Despite this, the formation of VisitBritain is a recognition of the importance of tourism to Britain.

'Other countries have long known how important tourism is to their economy,' said Peter Moore, former managing director of Center Parcs and board member of both the ETB and ETC. 'VisitBritain now gives us a voice and an aggressive marketing strategy to compete on the world stage.'

'Britain has so much to offer and often we as a nation don't recognise the potential we have to be a major destination. The government must put tourism on a pedestal and supply the funding it deserves - the industry is already worth £70-80bn a year, so just think what it could do with realistic funding.'

This was echoed by the Tourism Alliance: 'We have been involved since its conception last year,' said a spokesperson, 'and fully support the organisation, but it must be allocated the appropriate funding.'

Tom Wright, the new chief executive of VisitBritain, said: 'VisitBritain has been received with enormous enthusiasm because people recognise how undermarketed England is in the domestic market. The British product has been transformed in the past decade and now we can encourage British people to take advantage of what their country has to offer.'