Weather or not, we’re still a tourist hotspot

Despite the wash-out weather of much of the last 12 months, heritage and tourism folk say Yorkshire held up well. Sheena Hastings reports.

LAST year was officially the second wettest since meteorological records began in 1910. Somehow the London Olympics mostly avoided the worst of the weather, but generally, since Easter last year the country has lurched from one deluge to the next.

Despite the sogginess of the landscape and the greyness of the skies, and in spite also of the Games attracting holidaymakers from home and abroad to the capital, research just published by Yorkshire’s leading historic environment organisations actually shows a picture of the county’s heritage and tourism scene that is surprisingly resilient.

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For instance, in the latest Heritage Counts report – put together for the last ten years by a consortium of partners including the National Trust, Yorkshire Gardens Trust, the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and the Historic Houses Association – in 2011/12, 75 per cent of the British public visited an historic place in Yorkshire, the highest level since official statistics on this were first collected in 2005/06.

The number of people volunteering at heritage sites or with heritage projects is twice the national average, with National Trust volunteers in Yorkshire and the North-East increasing by 14 per cent compared to seven per cent nationally. We are living longer and more healthily into retirement and many look for volunteering work that will fill the time, be satisfying and chime with their interests.

The figures, coming in a year of great economic hardship and continuing uncertainty, not only reflect the public’s appetite for heritage and desire to become involved with it, but also provide an opportunity for the sector to capitalise on its popularity.

Part of the solid performance of the heritage sector in Yorkshire is attributed to increasing use of social media by organisations which use it to engage with the public in a way and on a scale what was previously impossible.

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The National Trust and English Heritage have 53,584 and 32,725 Twitter followers respectively, while Heritage Open Days has built a strong network of thousands of volunteers and organisers through its blog and other social media activities.

Despite the difficult economic environment of the last few years, Yorkshire’s heritage sites have been able to face up to the effects of the challenge because they have worked together and also because assets have been restored in recent years thanks to Heritage Lottery Fund grants to places like Wentworth Castle in South Yorkshire, Natural England funding to Bretton Hall in Yorkshire Sculpture Park to help with parkland planning and restoration and small grant schemes running since 2003 by Yorkshire Gardens Trust. Thanks to this funding, the seven per cent of heritage sites that were considered to be “at risk” in 1999 is now down to four per cent.

“We are lucky that public participation in heritage is now taken for granted. In the year 2011-12 there were 67,000 visitors to 430 sites holding open heritage weekends,” says Trevor Mitchell, planning and conservation director for Yorkshire and the Humber at English Heritage.

“Increasing numbers of people are seeing part-time work at heritage sits as a fruitful area for volunteering. The number of volunteers has increased year on year in our historical houses, parks and gardens. We’ve also seen a 15 per cent increase in the number of parks and gardens being registered as special. Quite a few 19th century cemeteries have also been registered as places of special interest.” English Heritage is only able to give grants to sites recognised as at risk, though.

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It’s calculated that £700m a year flows into Yorkshire from those who come into the county and use its hotels, B&Bs, holiday cottages, visitor attractions, restaurants, cafes, pubs, shops and galleries. Around 4.5m people visitors flock to our heritage attractions annually. The figures have stayed static in 2011-12, despite weather and tight family budgets.

“We were expecting a more difficult year than we’ve had because of the weather and the Olympics, to be honest,” says Mr Mitchell. “Some people stayed away from the UK in general because of those two factors, but we are hoping that the glimpse of the UK that people saw via the Olympics on TV piqued their interest enough for them to come this year instead.

“There continue to be challenges for everyone, and the commercial sector isn’t doing much to help heritage, but I feel very positive looking ahead. The people of Yorkshire value what it has and the people of Britain recognise what Yorkshire has, too.”

It’s been a testing year but also a momentous one for Yorkshire with its three national parks, two areas of outstanding natural beauty, the Pennines, stunning coastline and its various interesting and exciting towns and cities setting out their stall for this year and also preparing to welcome the Tour de France to the county when the race starts here in 2014.

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Gary Verity, chief executive of tourism organisation Welcome to Yorkshire, says that the tourism picture for 2012 was “mixed, but we out-performed most of the UK”, and 2013 could also be tough. Those involved in the county’s tourism “will have to be bigger and better” to face continued uncertainty in the economy.

“Outdoor attractions have obviously been hit worst by the weather, but it didn’t help that the TV weather forecasts are very generalised and vague, saying “rain in the North”, which puts people off and infuriates those who are ready to welcome visitors and find that they get no rain at all. They then have a quiet day in great weather.

“I’d really like to see the weather forecasts showing their performance statistics on the bottom of the screen, so viewers see how reliable they really are.”

He says that the difficult economic climate has been positive in some ways. “It has made some people and businesses look in the mirror and see what can be improved – whether they run a hotel or B&B, holiday cottages or a visitor attraction, large or small. We have a membership of 4,500 now and it’s growing at 130 a month, and many feel the economy has made them raise their game, which is great because people will have an even greater experience of coming to Yorkshire and will hopefully not only want to repeat the experience, but will also encourage their friends and family to come.”

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Despite further challenges ahead, Yorkshire will continue to attract “niche” visitors, for example the thousands who will look beyond the sports stadium to the other glories of the county when it 
hosts seven of the Rugby League World Cup matches this autumn. The benefits of the Tour de France will begin to be felt months ahead of the event, as the build-up begins.

“I don’t think we can exaggerate how big the race will be for Yorkshire,” says Mr Verity. “It will be massive and help to rebalance the economy. It will give us international kudos, and will be worth many millions in terms of profile, attitudes and legacy, as well as actually putting millions into the region’s businesses.”

The Government has said it will not provide any extra funding to help Yorkshire to host the Tour de France, but the ebullient Gary Verity feels optimistic that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport will change its tune.

“The Government did back our bid to host the start of the race, and although we later asked for a letter of support and didn’t get it, I suspect the attitude will soften as the event gets nearer.”

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In terms of beating the drum for Yorkshire outside the county – last year saw the WTY-backed Yorkshire Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show winning the People’s Choice award and a gold medal, and WTY also sponsored the giant David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy as well as more than 100 events in the county – another Yorkshire Garden will travel to Chelsea in May.

“I think we are very lucky that we live in such a beautiful, diverse, dynamic and lively area of the country. Yorkshire has everything, and we know we have to look at ways of doing things better all the time.“