Yorkshire needs a united voice to champion its vibrant tourism sector - Andrew Vine
Whitby was as busy as I’ve seen it outside the height of summer a couple of weeks ago, and it was a sight to lift the spirits.
The goths and steampunks had arrived for one of their weekend extravaganzas, and the streets, shops and cafes were packed, not only with those in elaborate and imaginative costumes, but visitors who had come to see them, snapping pictures on their phones.
At the park-and-ride on the outskirts of town, the queue for buses snaked virtually the length of the site.
It was a great weekend for all the Whitby businesses which depend on tourism, an opportunity to make some money after the peak holiday weeks on which their livelihoods overwhelmingly depend.
Yet only half an hour’s drive south, in Scarborough and Filey, the picture was different. Without the quirkiness of the benign goth invasion to draw visitors in, both towns were as quiet as you’d expect when autumn starts giving way to winter.
How to extend the visitor season along the coast beyond the summer will undoubtedly be on the agenda of the new partnership set up in North Yorkshire last week to develop the tourism economy which is already worth an impressive £4bn a year.
Very best of luck to them. Tourism is vitally important to Yorkshire and anything that can be done to make it an even more valuable contributor to how our county earns a living deserves wholehearted support.
The scale of tourism is demonstrated by the 32.2m who came to North Yorkshire during 2024, an increase of 3.8 per cent on the year before.
And the appetite for visiting the county is clearly to be seen in the ever-increasing numbers of hits on the Visit North Yorkshire website during its first year.
A prime opportunity to promote the area is presented by Scarborough’s 400th anniversary as a resort next year, and it makes perfect sense for the town to join forces with Whitby for a joint bid to be named the UK’s Town of Culture, which has already been suggested.
It isn’t just the coast that is drawing people to us. York is one of Britain’s leading urban destinations, and the majestic landscapes of the Dales and North Yorkshire Moors national parks are magnets for visitors.
Yorkshire’s culture and heritage, too, are vital elements in our appeal. A survey last year found York Minster and Whitby Abbey among the country’s most popular historic attractions.
Given all this, the new group’s chances of bringing in more visitors – and income – to North Yorkshire are excellent.
But why stop at North Yorkshire? It is high time that the whole of Yorkshire is once again promoted as one of Britain’s most attractive and captivating places to visit.
Outstanding efforts to promote individual parts of the county aren’t enough, even when they are as successful as those in North Yorkshire or in Bradford during its unforgettable year as the UK’s City of Culture.
If we are to reap the maximum benefit from tourism, then the entire county needs to be marketed to the rest of Britain – and overseas – as a great place to visit with a breadth of attractions unrivalled by anywhere else in the country.
Of course, the notion of a county-wide strategy raises the spectre of Welcome to Yorkshire, mention of which tends to cause a shudder amongst those responsible for local authority finances.
Without raking over yet again what went wrong at the former tourism body, the point should be made that, for a period, it was extremely successful at raising Yorkshire’s profile and attracting visitors.
Its best work showed how effective a joined-up approach embracing all parts of the county and capitalising on our distinctive identity could be.
Surely it is possible to replicate that, for the benefit of all Yorkshire. A piecemeal approach by individual areas always carries the risk that they become rivals, competing for visitors when greater rewards could be gained from working together.
For that to happen and succeed, the best way forward would be for the four elected mayors to join forces in a new combined drive for tourism.
They are already working closely together on issues including economic regeneration and better rail services, and the same degree of co-operation could build on the thriving tourist trade.
If more than 30m people a year are already coming to North Yorkshire, they might well be persuaded to explore more of what the county has to offer, whether that means the Wolds and Hull’s maritime history, the industrial heritage of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire’s sculpture trail or the high-end shopping of Leeds.