Bernard has been the CEO of the UK’s Association for Leading Visitor Attractions, since 2011 following a career in advocacy, communications, and lobbying, latterly at VisitBritain.  In 2017, the Mayor of London appointed Bernard to be the Mayor’s Ambassador for Cultural Tourism and a member of the Mayor’s Cultural Leadership Board. He is Co-Chair of the London Tourism Recovery Board, tasked with the sustainable recovery of London’ s visitor economy, created in February 2021.

Bernard is currently  Chair of the Board of the Bristol Old Vic theatre, the oldest continually working theatre in the English-speaking world,  and also of the People’s History Museum, the Museum of Democracy.  In July 2021, he won the public vote for the COVID Special Recognition Award from the UK Museums and Heritage Awards for his service to, and leadership of the museums and heritage sector in the UK during the pandemic. Bernard was awarded an OBE in HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Birthday Honours in 2022 for ‘services to tourism and to culture’.