North York Moors records tourism recovery despite years of cuts

Huge strides have been taken to improve the value of tourism in the North York Moors, a decade after income from visitors to the National Park started to decline.

Tourism’s worth to an area of the region prized for its beautiful landscapes has risen in each year since 2012, when visitor numbers and tourism’s value to the Moors had crashed to their lowest since a decline was first identified in 2007.

Now, National Park planners have measured the success in turning the situation around and they have found that in the three years to 2015, the value of tourism soared by nearly nine per cent to £608m and the number of visitors rose by 13 per cent to 7.6m.

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During the same period, full-time employment increased by almost six per cent, to 10,650 jobs.

Park chiefs expect the success to continue, with new events such as the Dark Skies Festival adding to its appeal and owing to greater collaborative marketing by local businesses to lure visitors.

The North York Moors National Park Authority has just agreed a new four-year plan that includes developing the existing, volunteer-run North York Moors Tourism Network, improving road signs to attractions and winning fresh grant funds for new projects.

Richard Gunton, the authority’s director of park services, said: “Lots of people come walking or cycling but there’s a lot of potential to attract more overseas visitors and people coming for celebrations and events. Our aim is to get people to stay longer and spend more. There are so many people in York, Leeds and the Middlesbrough area to appeal to and so we have a big opportunity.”

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Recent progress has come despite a financially testing time. The authority had its government funding cut from £4.2m to £5.4m between 2010 and 2015, and so cuts were made, including a 25 per cent reduction in rights of way spending.

Mr Gunton said: “Doing a lot of things has been challenging but what it has done is make us more innovative. It hasn’t been about throwing money about, it’s been about working together.

“We didn’t have a significant focus on tourism as an authority until six years ago when we noticed it was in decline and we decided to invest more time and effort into it - tourism is the single most important part of the park’s economy.”

Susan Briggs, head of the North York Moors Tourism Network, said: “If you don’t market it, people forget and go somewhere else and that’s what was happening. Most of the businesses here are small and didn’t collaborate and they had tiny marketing budgets.

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“We have gone from nothing to having a network of well over 500 businesses who come together to stage events and use the name of the North York Moors to put it on the map.”

Ms Briggs added: “I think we can expand the network to 700 businesses over the next couple of years but it’s about getting people we’re already working with to do more with us - using the same marketing and sales messages and great images of the Moors.”

MISSION TO CHALLENGE PERCEPTIONS

Key to attracting more visitors to the North York Moors is changing how the national park is perceived from the outside, said Susan Briggs.

The North York Moors Tourism Network leader said: “People think of lots of moorland and that’s true but we want them to see that there is more beyond that. There’s a lot to do and see, a lot of activity operators and 20 indoor places to go - it’s not just a place to go to on a sunny day.

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“We have really high quality accommodation that are different to what you’ll find elsewhere, and there are a range of activities, from learning to make chocolate, to going fishing or whale watching.”

Richard Gunton, park services chief at the North York Moors National park Authority said spring was a great time to visit as the moors are flush with ground nesting birds, spring flowers are bursting and trees are in bud, adding: “It’s just beautiful in so many ways.”

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