Andrew Vine: Time to show the world a warm Yorkshire welcome

THE group of Japanese tourists was laughing and chatting, photographing and videoing, on what was plainly a great day out.

I’d guess it was their first visit to York from the way they looked upwards in wonder at the Minster and pored over their guidebook for what it had to tell them about our greatest landmark.

And then the shine was taken off their day by a nasty little specimen behind the counter of a shop that I happened to follow them into.

He was a prime example of how not to deal with people – permanent expression of dissatisfaction, air of irritability at being troubled by customers and a manner brusque to the point of rudeness.

As the tourists fumbled with money – as any of us do on holiday when we’re dealing with an unfamiliar currency – he barked “Get a move on, I haven’t got all day” and tut-tutted as pointedly as he could. The smiles vanished from their faces as if they’d been slapped, as Mr Charm glowered at them. One of the group started to apologise for being slow, only to be cut off short with this remark: “I haven’t got time for that.” The expressions on the visitors’ faces spoke not only of their discomfort, but of upset.

Such rudeness is inexcusable, so I left the queue, found the manager and complained. To her credit, she was appalled, the Japanese people received an apology and the assistant – transformed from belligerent to cringing – vanished into the back of the shop, presumably to be told that if there was any repetition the next people he faced over a counter would be at the dole office.

There are going to be an awful lot of people like those tourists heading to Yorkshire in a little over three months’ time, and the last thing that they – or the county – need is to encounter the sort of incivility bordering on hostility to be found in that shop.

Whether or not the ungracious assistant realised it – or cared, until he was pulled up – he and a legion of other people whose jobs involve them dealing with the public play a large part in ensuring the face that Yorkshire presents to the world is a welcoming one.

Getting that right will be very much on the minds of those attending this Thursday’s Welcome to Yorkshire Y14 conference in Harrogate.

The event is timed to mark 100 days until Le Grand Départ of the Tour de France, which promises to be one of the most extraordinary spectacles that the county has ever witnessed.

It’s perfectly possible that Yorkshire will have visitors from a wider range of countries than it has ever hosted before, given the global appeal of the Tour, so we can all look forward to those heady few days in July when our cities and countryside will feel like very international places.

It’s our chance to showcase Yorkshire to the world, not only to the visitors who come here, but the millions upon millions more who will see us on television.

And that means we all need to do our bit to think of those visitors as our guests, to make them welcome, and display our county to its best advantage. There abides in Yorkshire an innate hospitality and generosity of spirit, and we shouldn’t be too modest about letting both qualities show.

Businesses both large and small need to be on their mettle and make sure those they employ are left in no doubt about the need to be pleasant and polite.

Of course, the vast majority of people who serve the public behave in exactly that way, but those with a tendency towards ill-temper need watching closely. There will be countless visitors fumbling with money in shops and cafés, others who perhaps struggle a little with English, and all deserve to be treated with patience, kindness and good humour.

Because there is another, very important, reason to behave well towards the vast numbers flocking in to watch the Tour. Money. There’s nothing cynical or hard-faced about acknowledging that Yorkshire needs to make the most it can out of the Tour and its legacy both this summer and in years to come. Rather, it’s about a realistic appreciation of the necessity of seizing and capitalising a golden opportunity.

Shops, cafés, restaurants, pubs, guest houses and all the rest of the businesses in the leisure and tourism industries that have suffered such a lean time should get a huge boost from the influx.

Equally valuable will be the exposure that Le Grand Départ gives Yorkshire internationally. People who might never have thought of visiting us will see what our cities have to offer, and have their eyes opened to the glories of our countryside.

If they are treated well, those arriving as strangers will not only leave as friends who hopefully want to return and explore more of what we have to offer. They will also leave as ambassadors for Yorkshire, and we can never have too many of those.