Fuel costs and economy top list of concerns for Dales business bosses

Escalating fuel costs and the state of the economy are the two biggest worries for business leaders in the Yorkshire Dales, a survey has revealed. The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority carried out a study to find out the views of businesses and to give them the chance to feed into the development of a tourism strategy and action plan.

As well as dissatisfaction with petrol and diesel prices, it also highlighted concerns about transport, promotion and planning. The survey also showed there was considerable scope to improve networking between businesses, and keep firms up to date on tourism issues.

However it also showed that bosses see the key strength of the area as the landscape and that they believe there is an opportunity to promote the area building on recent promotions like the Olympic torch relay’s visit to Aysgarth Falls and the TV series The Dales.

Kathryn Storey, the authority’s sustainable tourism officer, said the information provided was “useful”. She added: “While it would not be possible to take forward everything on the ‘wish list’, many actions will be built into the Sustainable Tourism Strategy and Action Plan for the Dales being developed for our re-accreditation as a Europarc area for sustainable tourism.”