Welcome to Yorkshire's long road to restoring reputation after Tour de France legacy turned sour

It put Yorkshire on the global map and brought Sir Gary fame and a knighthood - as well as cementing the public profile of Welcome to Yorkshire, the company he had established as a successor to the former Yorkshire Tourist Board to sell a more modern vision of the region to the world.

Seven years on, Sir Gary’s successor as Welcome to Yorkshire’s chief executive, James Mason, is operating in a very different environment, thanks both to Covid-19 and the agency’s tarnished reputation and under-pressure finances.

One of the legacies of the Tour de France was the establishment of an annual Tour de Yorkshire cycling race, but the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic and has been called off again this year.

Under Sir Gary’s reign, Welcome to Yorkshire had become strongly associated with putting on eye-catching events and activities with its annual garden designs at the Chelsea Flower Show winning garlands of praise from expert judges and visiting celebrities alike.

But when his time at the tourism agency came to an end with his resignation in March 2019 on health grounds amidst allegations about expenses spending and treatment of staff, Welcome to Yorkshire was quickly being viewed in a very different light and its use of taxpayer funding to support its activities was placed under great scrutiny.

Chairman Ron McMillan also resigned after ordering two independent inquiries - one of which found that it was impossible to say whether almost £1m of expenses claimed by senior managers and board members had been reasonable due to a lack of clear spending policies.

In July 2019, former communications director Dee Marshall, who left the organisation in 2015, said the original good intentions behind the formation of Welcome to Yorkshire became lost after the success of the Tour de France.

“The extravagances became ludicrous – chauffeur-driven cars, helicopters hired, stays in luxury hotels and eye-wateringly expensive meals. I’m sorry to say, I did too little for too long,” she wrote in The Yorkshire Post.

Shortly after Wakefield Council leader Peter Box became WtY chairman in October 2019, he gave a blunt assessment that the organisation had been operating with a “spend now worry about it later” culture and cancelled its participation in the 2020 Chelsea Flower Show after revealing it had gone three times over budget with its 2019 effort.

When Mr Mason, a former chief operating officer at Bradford City, was appointed as Sir Gary’s replacement in January 2020 he was given the mission of restoring the organisation’s finances and rebuilding its battered reputation.

But he stressed at the time he was also keen on continuing Welcome to Yorkshire’s success with cycling events - only for Covid to derail plans for the 2020 Tour de Yorkshire a few months later.

The lockdown restrictions which dominated the rest of 2020 and have continued into 2021 seriously curtailed the company’s ability to put on events - with a socially-distanced golf day arranged and the organisation’s annual White Rose Awards turned into an online ceremony.

The company also launched a new ‘Walkshire’ campaign to promote Yorkshire as the walking capital of the world - an initiative which chimes with the socially-distanced times.

Mr Mason says that putting on events again will be a key part of Welcome to Yorkshire’s future once restrictions are lifted.

“We need activity to put on events, festivals and attract visitors to the region as do many other businesses,” he says.

“We’re not impervious to this. We will of course adapt and pursue all commercial opportunities in front of us including an increased digital presence and hopefully the development of a Yorkshire Visitor’s App.”

He says positive discussions about a Tour de Yorkshire event in 2022 are under way - but questions of how exactly the organisation of the event will be funded remain.

Mr Mason says while events such as the Tour and the UCI Road World Championships which was hosted in Yorkshire in 2019 do generate revenue for the tourist agency, they are also costly to stage.

“Cycling is 100 per cent part of our plans going forward. The legacy that has been created is one we should all be proud of. Who knows - the 2022 race could be the big event we all need after Covid.

“We understand there is a big appetite within the county, the country and the world for cycling in Yorkshire.

“We have to work really closely on that business model to ensure that the public sector and private sector get real value for money.

“We need to have a strategic conversation with stakeholders across the region. While Welcome to Yorkshire may not benefit financially from the race, we have to look at the bigger picture - many businesses benefit from it.”

He added that close working relationships with local councils and private sector members will be vital in the process of restarting events in a sustainable way when lockdown restrictions are lifted.

“When the events industry bounces back to life, we have got to be able to put on creative events.

“There will be a huge pent-up demand and excitement for big, celebratory events. We have seen in the past they can unite the county and bring people together.

“Sports sponsorship is changing - just getting TV coverage doesn’t necessarily get sponsors in. We have to be really smart with what we offer sponsors.

“We have got to look at the whole model with private and public partners and think about how we can demonstrate real value to anyone who wants to contribute.”

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