Nigel Wilkinson MBE

Nigel was appointed as a Board Member to the VisitEngland Advisory Board in August 2022. His range of experience covers Engineering and Chartered Accountancy, as well as senior business and tourism management. Since 2004, Nigel has been the Managing Director of Cumbria’s largest visitor attraction, Windermere Lake Cruises Limited. In addition to this, he’s also Managing Director of Winander Leisure Limited, a Director of Winander Group Holdings Limited, Lakeland Motor Museum Limited and Yorkshire-based property company, Rushbond plc.

From 2007 to 2017 he was a director of Cumbria Tourism (CT), the county’s Destination Management Organisation (DMO), as well as chairing the committee responsible for managing its finances. He served on the Board of Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (CLEP) from 2017 to 2023, chairing both CLEP’s Visitor Economy Sector Panel and its Finance, Audit and Resources Committee and represented CLEP on the Lake District National Park Partnership.

More recently, Nigel was appointed in late 2020 to the Tourism Industry Council, a collaboration between government and the tourism industry focusing on improving the tourism sector including jobs, transport and deregulation.

Nigel was appointed as a Trustee and Director of South Cumbria Rivers Trust in 2021, a charity and trust with the principal objective of monitoring, conserving, protecting and improving the biodiversity of lakes, rivers and more, for the public.

In the Queen’s Birthday 2022 Honours List, Nigel was recognised with the honour of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to tourism and the economy in Cumbria. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cumbria in July 2022.

Nigel was appointed as a Board Member to the VisitEngland Advisory Board in August 2022. His current term will end in 2027.