Visit Kent Limited, which traded from Best Lane in Canterbury, went into liquidation on 25 August 2026. It is the second Visit Kent company wound up in a year.
The company that carried the Visit Kent name has been wound up. Visit Kent Limited went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 25 August 2026, and the notice was published in The London Gazette three days later.
The Gazette gives the company’s principal trading address as Suite 2-4, Franklin House, Best Lane, Canterbury, CT1 2JB. Its nature of business is recorded as “services to the visitor economy”. (The Gazette, notice 5201217)
The joint liquidators are Alison Jane Collier and Amanda Janice Ireland of Kent Insolvency Ltd, 2 The Links, Herne Bay, CT6 7GQ. The general meeting that passed the winding-up resolution was held at that Herne Bay address on 25 August. (The Gazette, notice 5201218)
This is the second company of that name to be wound up inside a year, and the register explains why the story is easy to get wrong.
Two companies, one name, swapped in a day
Kent’s official destination management organisation ran through two limited companies, and in April 2025 they exchanged names. The Companies House register records it plainly:
- Company 04400592 was incorporated on 21 March 2002 as Kent Tourism Alliance Limited, became Visit Kent Limited on 21 March 2008, and became Go To Places Limited on 15 April 2025. (Companies House, 04400592)
- Company 09779494 was incorporated on 16 September 2015 as Go To Places Ltd, and became Visit Kent Limited on the same day, 15 April 2025. (Companies House, 09779494)
The two are connected. The register of persons with significant control shows Go To Places Limited owning 75 per cent or more of the shares in Visit Kent Limited, with a correspondence address at Franklin House, 10 Best Lane, Canterbury. (Companies House, persons with significant control)
The parent went first. Go To Places Limited, trading as Visit Kent and Visit Herts, entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 7 October 2025, with Crowe U.K. LLP of Maidstone appointed joint liquidators. Its principal trading address was 10 Best Lane, Canterbury. (The Gazette, notice 4980784)
What the last accounts show
Visit Kent Limited’s final filed accounts are micro-entity accounts for the year to 31 March 2025, delivered on 24 March 2026 and unaudited. They record:
- total net assets of £0 at 31 March 2025, against net liabilities of £66,585 a year earlier
- creditors falling due within one year of £116,365 at 31 March 2024, and nil at 31 March 2025
- an average of no employees during 2024-25, down from three the year before
The accounts were approved by the board on 24 March 2026. (Companies House, filing history)
One oddity worth flagging for anyone checking this themselves. When we looked on 1 September, Companies House still listed Visit Kent Limited as “Active”. The Gazette notice is the earlier record; the register catches up afterwards.
Why it matters in Canterbury
Canterbury has more tourism jobs than any other district in Kent. Kent County Council’s own statistical bulletin, published in January 2026, puts the figures at:
- 8,000 tourism jobs in the Canterbury district in 2024, 12.0 per cent of all jobs here
- a fall of 1,000 tourism jobs, or 11.1 per cent, in a single year
- 675 tourism enterprises in 2025, 11.8 per cent of all enterprises in the district
- £180 million of gross value added from accommodation and food services in 2023, the highest in Kent, worth £1,119 per head and 4.1 per cent of the district’s total economic output
(Kent County Council, Tourism Industry in Kent, Statistical Bulletin January 2026)
Visit Kent’s job was to sell all of that to people who had not yet booked. The county council described the collapse in October 2025 as “a massive blow to the business community and tourist industry in Kent”, in the words of Paul King, then its cabinet member for economic development and coastal regeneration. (Kent County Council, 8 October 2025)
What replaced it
Kent County Council and Medway Council launched a joint service called Grow in Kent on 13 April 2026. It runs two brands: Visit Kent for the visitor economy, and a new Invest Kent for inward investment. The councils say they took on the old organisation’s assets, including its websites, branding and social media accounts, and that the new team includes former employees of both Visit Kent and Locate in Kent.
David Wimble, KCC’s cabinet member for economic development and special projects, said the councils “secured the legacy of these former companies, obtaining decades of knowledge and assets”. (Kent County Council, 13 April 2026)
That is why visitkent.co.uk still works. The website outlived the company that built it.
One Canterbury site has not fared as well. Visitcanterbury.co.uk, the district’s visitor website, did not load when we checked it on 1 September, returning a server error on both the apex and www addresses across four attempts. The most recent copy held by the Internet Archive is dated 13 April 2026. The site was relaunched in January 2023, run by the Canterbury Business Improvement District, on a website the city council said at the time had been “designed by Visit Kent”. (Canterbury City Council newsroom) We could not reach the Canterbury BID for its own account: its website returned a security block to us on the same day.
What it means for you
If you are owed money by Visit Kent Limited, the liquidators are the people to contact. Kent Insolvency Ltd can be reached on 01795 433655, and the Gazette notice names Alison Jane Collier as the contact for further information. Creditors’ voluntary liquidation means the company’s own members resolved to wind it up, and creditors are paid in the statutory order from whatever the liquidators recover. The last accounts show a company with nothing left on its balance sheet, so expectations should be set accordingly.
If you run a tourism or hospitality business in Canterbury, Whitstable or Herne Bay, the county-level support you used to get from Visit Kent now comes through Grow in Kent, which the councils say is free to access with paid partnership packages on top. If you are a visitor looking for what is on, our own things to do in Canterbury page is not going anywhere.
For other practical local information, see our guides to parking in Canterbury, bin collection days and planning applications in the district.
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