Growing the visitor economy

Our great places, our environment, our cultural heritage and our sense of Yorkshire pride all attract visitors to our region. Tourism adds to our quality of life and makes the region an attractive place to live, work and do business. Promoting tourism is one way in which we showcase the region nationally and internationally: it gives us an opportunity to tell the world what the region is like, and what we have to offer.

In 2003, the government appointed Yorkshire Forward as the strategic lead body for tourism in Yorkshire and Humber.

What is the ‘visitor economy'?

The visitor economy is made up of accommodation, restaurants, bars, culture, amusements, sporting activities and other recreation. Tourism is a major component of this, but there are other sources.

Our priorities for the visitor economy

These are identified through the Regional Economic Strategy for Yorkshire & Humber 2006-2015 and the Visitor Economy Strategy (VES).

The VES identifies seven priorities for the growth of the visitor economy in the region over the next five years, with a headline target to grow the value of the region’s visitor economy by 5% annually to 2013. Our priorities are:

  • To develop the quality and modernity of the tourism product for our visitors’ needs,
  • To raise the level of customer service,
  • To actively promote our region’s changing offer,
  • To make full use of online promotional opportunities,
  • To understand our visitors better,
  • To engender new innovative thinking for future development, and
  • To co-ordinate public-sector interventions to maximise impact and benefit.

From April 2009 Yorkshire Forward is investing £30million in the visitor economy in Yorkshire and Humber over 3 years in order to achieve this 5% growth target. As part of the increased investment, the tourism network in the region was reorganised to provide a more joined up approach on tourism delivery whereby duplication is reduced to maximise benefit for the region. The network is led by the regional tourism marketing body Welcome to Yorkshire, through which the Yorkshire Forward investment is channeled.

At a local level, there are six tourism partnerships which lead and coordinate the development of the visitor economy in their area with a strong focus on improving the visitor experience. Each partnership is managed by a board comprising both local authority representatives and local tourism business people; the board provides the strategic direction for the operational teams who manage the work on a day to day basis.

  • Visit Hull & East Yorkshire
  • Visit York
  • West Yorkshire Tourism Partnership
  • Yorkshire Dales & Harrogate Tourism Partnership
  • Yorkshire Moors and Coast Tourism Partnership
  • Yorkshire South Tourism.

There is a somewhat different picture of delivery in the South Bank of the Humber, whereby the local authorities of North and North East Lincolnshire work more closely with Lincolnshire Tourism, as opposed to Yorkshire Tourist Board, in the promotion of their area. This is because visitors to their area perceive that they are in Lincolnshire and relate more to it rather than the Yorkshire brand. Yorkshire Forward is committed to ensuring that the South Bank, working together as Northern Lincolnshire Tourism Partnership, is able to support its tourism sector by working with both Welcome to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Tourism as appropriate.

Why does it matter?

Visitors have a positive impact on the economy. They bring in spending, and help to raise the profile of the helping to raise the region's profile and spending their money here. It showcases our cities and towns, can lead to new businesses (through enterprise and inward investment), improves business confidence, and contributes to a sense of shared community.

How important is it to our region?

The visitor economy contributed £6.3bn or 8.5% of the region’s total output in 2007- a high proportion compared to the national average. This output has grown by 50% in the last 10 years. The sector employs 243,500 people, of which 51% are full time, in well over 20,000 businesses.

Why is intervention needed?

None of the region’s top 100 companies are in the visitor sector; it’s fragmented, and populated by small independent businesses (77% of tourism-related businesses have less than 10 employees). They are rarely leading-edge.  Without strategic intervention, each area (usually based on a local authority boundary) develops and promotes itself in isolation and even in competition with its neighbours, thereby limiting the overall potential of the region.  Yorkshire is a strong regional brand, but we remain in third place in England in terms of awareness and consideration to visit. Intervention is required to ensure that the region is aligned behind an overall marketing and growth strategy.

How will we develop the visitor economy?

  • We will lead the development of a regional tourism strategy, based on good research and linking in to relevant national strategies
  • We will help to develop ‘the next big thing’ for tourism in Yorkshire & Humber, based on the region’s assets and opportunities
  • We will help to ensure consistently high quality in the way the region approaches tourism marketing.

Regional Visitor Survey

Welcome to Yorkshire are conducting a survey to find out more about leisure visitor’s days out and holidays in Yorkshire and Humber. The survey provides valuable information about visitor behaviour, how visitors make decisions about their visit and their perceptions of the region.  Please click on the link below to complete the short survey and be in with a chance of winning one of four great prizes including a short break of a two night mid-week break for two at The Feversham Arms, a one night bed and breakfast stay at the Manor House Hotel, two family passes for MAGNA and two, two day York passes for two people. Visit the Yorkshire Online Survey website for more details on the prizes and the survey.

Events

Holding events in our region is just one way we can raise the region’s profile and grow visitor spend. Yorkshire Forward is currently supporting events including:

  • Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race
  • World Snooker Championships
  • UCI Mountain Bike Cross Country World Cup.

Useful links

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) are responsible for supporting the tourism and leisure industries at national level and it has published the Winning - a tourism strategy for 2012 and beyond.YF is working closely with DCMS on Sea Change national capital grants programme,  which aims to implement creative/cultural regeneration activities in seaside resorts. Its total budget is £45 million over three years (2008- 2011). The programme is funded by DCMS and led by the Commission of Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) which is working with national and regional partners to deliver the programme.

Winning - a tourism strategy for 2012 The strategy has been published by DCMS following lengthy consultation on the Welcome to Legacy document of 2006. This strategy effectively now replaces the previous national tourism strategy Tomorrow’s Tourism Today and refocuses the sector on maximising the impact of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The strategy proposes new targets for overall growth, quality and a new framework for sustainable tourism.

Visit Britain is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and it is Britain's national tourism agency, responsible for marketing Britain worldwide and for developing England's visitor economy. Yorkshire Forward and Yorkshire Tourist Board work closely with Visit Britain in developing Britain’s tourism industry.

Partners for England: Established in 2006, the Partners for England forum seeks to bring together key players in England to improve engagement and co-ordination between the national bodies, regions and local authorities.  The forum is focussing on 4 key strands: leadership; place-making and a charter for destination management; marketing alignment; and a national tourism intelligence partnership.

English Tourism Intelligence Partnership (ETIP) Nationally, the Partners for England forum, has established the English Tourism Intelligence Partnership (ETIP) to lead action and investment to improve tourism intelligence and statistics within England. The tourism sector’s intelligence is predominantly backward looking, with forecasting and future trend data rare. This partnership is responsible for providing better evidential support for tourism investment and strategy development. The partnership is funded jointly by the Regional Development Agencies and VisitBritain.

Place-making charter Nationally, the Partners for England forum is actively recognising the importance of the visitor economy to the development of place by developing a Charter for Destination Management as a means of joining up the huge cross cutting economic environmental and social benefits that a thriving visitor economy can bring to an area.  In Yorkshire and Humber, the Yorkshire Forward led renaissance programme that involves many of our towns and cities is resulting in changing places that offer exciting new opportunities both for the development of the visitor economy product and the promotion of our region in a contemporary manner.

National Skills Strategy was published by People 1st (Sector Skills Council for Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism). Aim is to tackle the sector's skill and retention problems and to prepare industry to deliver a world class visitor experience in 2012 Olympics. YF has set up the Regional Tourism Skills Group to bring together key skills and tourism partners to identify the skills needs for our region. To date the group has focused on the tourism skills action plan for the region to deliver against the National Skills Strategy (NSS) and Visitor Economy Strategy.

Contacts

If you’d like to find out more about these issues, speak to a member of the Yorkshire Forward Tourism team:

Alison Barker
Regional Visitor Economy Manager
E-mail: (Alison.barker@yorkshire-forward.com)
Tel: 0113 394 9883

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