Heavy cuts to services for visitors

Almost every council in the region is cutting spending on tourism heavily, despite the need to pull more visitors into Yorkshire and boost its fragile economy.

By The Newsroom

Published 7th Mar 2011, 09:58 BST

At least five tourist information centres (TICs) are to close, mostly in popular parts of North Yorkshire, full TIC services being replaced with tourist information points in other local facilities.

Council support for wider tourism partnerships is also being cut, as is funding to national parks such as the North York Moors.

And many cultural events organised by local authorities will also be hit hard, with new charges introduced for the public and events scaled back or even cancelled altogether.

Hull City Council is reducing funding for its Freedom Festival, for example, while new charges will be introduced for Leeds’s Opera in the Park event.

In North Yorkshire, the county council is considering the future of its four outdoor education centres, popular with schoolchildren and tourists alike.

The authority says the “number of centres” will be reviewed.