How Whitby and York are being hit by tourism slump – Yorkshire Post Letters

YOU can’t help but notice how cities such as Barcelona, London, Bath and now even York have been hit by the post-pandemic tourism slump (Rachael Maskell, The Yorkshire Post, September 14).

I was born and lived in York for 30 years, I remember Rowntrees, Terrys, Cravens, Ben Johnson printers, York Carriage works and Redfearn National Glass all employed high-skilled and well-paid jobs. Now they are all gone and replaced by apartment blocks and hotels.

More worryingly, one in four jobs in York are low-paid, low-skilled and insecure jobs, especially affecting young people who are being forced out of the housing market by overdevelopment with a city awash with rooms being exploited by investors.

In 2008, the financial world went into meltdown, like a pebble being dropped into a pond. Whitby was not affected initially, two years later the ripple hit and Whitby felt the turndown.

You only have to look around ourselves currently with any property being touted by estate agents as a holiday bolt hole, new builds shooting up all over as investors who care little for the local community descend like vultures to take their profit as quickly as possible before moving onto their next investment opportunity.

So who is going to stand up for local residents? The people that you vote for as councillors are all praising the new developments, extolling the investment and the new jobs being created.

York’s tourist economy is 50 miles down the road and is facing a moment of great uncertainty. I hope the people in charge of our local economy wake up and smell the fear that is coming out of York before the ripple hits Whitby and causes more hardship for our local community which has seen no investment from the local authority for years, while selling every asset off for development.

Reinvestment and future-proofing of our community by the local authority remains woeful.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson