Balcombe initially served as chief executive of VisitBritain before taking on the VisitEngland brief too. Dame Judith Macgregor, interim chair of the British Tourist Authority, will lead the search for Balcombe’s successor.

In a departing message, Balcombe hailed the country’s "world class" tourism industry and reflected on the challenges posed by the Covid crisis.

"When I joined, in 2014, we were already a high performing agency supporting a world-class, successful industry," she said. "Until the pandemic, our industry went from strength-to-strength, attracting record numbers of both visits and spend, creating jobs and economic growth.

"Then Covid struck, hitting our industry first and hardest. Our sector has always been able to adapt and Covid was no different, with conference centres becoming hospitals and museums and attractions taking their collections online."

Balcombe added: "As we enter 2022, our industry continues to be confronted by many challenges and our focus is to drive immediate tourism recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic by building back visitor spend as quickly as possible and supporting the industry."

Macgregor praised Balcombe for her "outstanding and creative" leadership, her efforts to steer the organisation through the pandemic, and her work on developing a longer-term strategy designed to ensure the industry emerges from the Covid crisis in good health.

"Sally has made a significant and lasting contribution to the UK’s tourism industry, not only during her tenure as chief executive of VisitBritain/VisitEngland, but with a career spanning more than 40 years in travel. We wish Sally all the very best for the future.”