Gary Verity isn’t standing on ceremony ahead of the Tour de Yorkshire

THE question I have been asked most since I arrived at TheBusinessDesk.com has been “have you met Gary Verity yet?”.

No-one else seems to divide opinion in Yorkshire’s business community quite as much as the Welcome to Yorkshire boss.

Either he is the man who has almost single-handedly elevated the profile, reputation and confidence of the county to its current heightened state. The tales of no-nonsense, not-taking-no-for-an-answer approach are like biblical stories – after all, the Tour de France coming to Yorkshire was miraculous, wasn’t it?

Or he is the man who has taken the credit for the work of a group of public and private bodies and dozens, if not hundreds, of staff working at those organisations. Those detractors – the “he’s done a good job, but…” brigade – also like to make religious links and point to his parading about in a Popemobile as evidence that he has an other-worldly view of his status and accomplishments.

Regardless of which camp people are in, there is widespread acknowledgement of his skills as a politician, which helps to explain why his name is usually the first, and often the only, non-partisan name mentioned as a future Mayor.

And when I was ushered in to his meeting space of sofas overlooking the offices below, with Mr Verity sitting back with white shirt and bright yellow braces but no tie or jacket, it did have the air of a Presidential candidate at the end of a long day on the campaign trial.

But immediately the Marmite effect he has came to the fore as he remained seated to shake my hand. The brash, confident approach he has injected into Welcome to Yorkshire can be great, but it seemed an odd way of reinforcing the idea that he isn’t one for standing on ceremony.

We are here principally to talk about the Tour de Yorkshire, which will this weekend provide an answer to whether Yorkshire’s passion for cycling was a glorious holiday romance or something more meaningful.

“It’s down to the weather,” said Mr Verity, back on message as a politician looking to manage expectations. “If it’s like today [a warm, sunny spring day], we will get more people than if it’s less favourable.

“It clearly won’t be as big as the Tour de France but it will still be significant.

“In economic impact, about one-third of what the Tour de France was. This is three days, that was two days. We think all things being equal, it will be about £30-40m of economic impact.”

Tour de France

One million spectators and television coverage in more than 100 countries are extraordinary figures and the hope is that this global advert for the county will provide another boost to tourism, coming as it does at the start of the critical summer months.

Welcome to Yorkshire is a members’ organisation whose central purpose is to promote the services of the hotels, restaurants, attractions, leisure operators and other businesses that pay their annual membership fees. But it is also responsible for promoting Yorkshire, which it does through events as diverse as the Chelsea Flower Show and the arts-focused Yorkshire Festival.

How is that done, balancing the demands of individual members with the demands of a broader audience?

“Don’t sleep,” he said bluntly. “Work long hours, try and do double shifts if you can, so you keep two constituencies happy.”

While that can be achieved when working on a once-in-a-generation event like le Tour, time will tell whether the departures of some staff will affect the ability of the organisation to continue to run quite so fast as it has previously managed.

Regardless, it remains committed to its mission to promote the county’s charms to the widest-possible audience to the benefit of the regional economy.

Mr Verity added: “We are conscious that our main priority is to the tourism businesses across Yorkshire and the 25,000 tourism businesses are our constituency base.

“While we can’t keep everyone happy, we can keep the vast majority happy. The litmus test for us is we constantly get people asking us ‘why don’t we have a Welcome to Yorkshire for our place?’.

“In terms of marketing and inward investment, we have a hugely successful brand in Yorkshire.

“We have got something very powerful that very few other parts of the country, and indeed Europe, can compete with.”

Gary Verity (right) and Christian Prudhomme announce the routes

Tourism is a hugely-competitive sector, especially with Government funding and consumer spending putting pressure on income streams for Welcome to Yorkshire and its members.

“The organisation has been going since 1972 so it has been various shapes and sizes over its history,” he said. “Probably the last few years have been a renaissance but it’s a constant challenge.

“For the first time in its history we have had no Government funding and within that period we have delivered record tourism numbers and record economic growth in the sector.”

Getting money in is the dominant one of the three parts of his job “delivering awesome events, keeping our members happy and getting out and about talking about getting some brass in”.

“It’s just the same as it was, it’s like getting on a treadmill,” he added.

After he gets a nudge that he needs to leave in five minutes for his next engagement, he builds to a big finish.

“The Tour de Yorkshire will be big,” he said. “It’s important that we cement that as an ongoing event in Yorkshire’s itinerary.

“We would like to help support Hull’s Capital of Culture year to make the event as big as the Tour de France.

“We were quite clear that the Tour de France needs to be the start of the journey rather than the end. In nine months since we have not exactly rested on our laurels.”

With that, he is done, and stands up to shake my hand.

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