Yorkshire tourism needs a climate of certainty - Welcome to Yorkshire's Peter Box

IT was in January 2020 when a 23-year-old student called NHS 111 from his hotel room in York complaining of a fever, dry cough and muscle pain. His symptoms were later confirmed as the United Kingdom’s first case of Covid-19. Yorkshire is a place of firsts but this was one we would gladly have done without.

Two years on, with renewed Government guidance in place, Yorkshire’s tourism and hospitality sectors are again fighting hard to stay afloat. As chair of Welcome to Yorkshire, an organisation that continues to promote the county’s tourism and hospitality regionally, nationally and internationally, I am privileged to play my part in championing Yorkshire.

Our activities have continued throughout the pandemic with our talented staff working tirelessly to help local businesses whilst running campaigns to attract more visitors and planning new initiatives.

Last year our hugely successful Walkshire campaign promoted Yorkshire as the walking capital of the world. Some 365 individual walking routes were shared – one for each day – and Walkshire made a real difference in helping to boost fitness and well-being, especially timely during the pandemic.

This year is already off to a flying start with the launch on New Year’s Day of our biggest ever food and drink campaign, Yorkshire Menu – yorkshiremenu.com. Over the next 12 months, we will work closely with local producers, eateries and retailers to publicise and celebrate their wares. There will be a different theme each month and lots of competitions, with everything threaded together under the banners of city, coast and country.

The Welcome to Yorkshire team is skilled in the use of digital technology to reach the widest possible audience. Supported by the use of social media channels, our website – yorkshire.com – is a real treasure trove of promotional films, podcasts and useful information about things to do and places to see in our fantastic county.

In the 12 months to August 2021, it attracted 2,550,387 users and 7,188,190 page views. We have a social media audience of 503,727 consumers and 20,666 industry users, with Welcome to Yorkshire posts appearing on screens 85,797,683 times. Digital marketing is another vital weapon in our armoury using an email database of 93,000 consumers and 16,000 from industry.

I am grateful for the government support offered to businesses thus far. However, extra support will undoubtedly be required, which is why Welcome to Yorkshire has been working in partnership with the Tourism Alliance and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to build the case for more government support for the tourism and hospitality sectors in the longer term. To that end, I strongly urge relevant businesses to complete the online survey which can be accessed via the Welcome to Yorkshire website until January 10.

We are reaching out to other partners and stakeholders around the region and collaborating to make the case for Yorkshire to key decision makers in Whitehall and beyond. Ongoing engagements include working with local MPs and metro mayors to support the recommendations made by the independent review of Destination Management Organisations, including Welcome to Yorkshire.

We are also liaising with public and private sector decision makers to establish a Yorkshire Tourism Steering Group. This will make policy recommendations to help us shape new campaigns to benefit our entire region. And we are looking inwards as well as outwards. In the coming days, the Welcome to Yorkshire board will announce details of an internal review on the future direction of the organisation, with partners, stakeholders and the public invited to have their say. This will run in parallel with a separate review by the Yorkshire and Humber Leaders. We will present our report for their consideration next month.

Looking further ahead, I feel buoyant about the direction Yorkshire tourism will take, particularly when the Covid shackles are finally removed. Welcome to Yorkshire looks forward to that journey.