Welcome to Yorkshire pedals back to profit after £1m Tour de France hit
THE region’s official tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire has hailed its return to profit as a “significant turnaround” from its 2014/2015 financial year, when it was left £1m out of pocket from the Tour de France visit.
In its latest filing at Companies House, the agency, which recently secured the bid to host the 2019 UCI Road World Championships, reported profit of £109,928 for the year to March 31, 2016.
This was up from a loss of £1.05m in the prior year period, which at the time Welcome to Yorkshire boss Sir Gary Verity defended, saying the shortfall was outweighed by the “£102m economic benefit” that the Grand Depart brought to the region and regarded the loss as an “investment” in Yorkshire’s economy.
Welcome to Yorkshire said the results mark the “successful delivery” of the first year of a four-year strategy to strengthen the organisation’s financial base.
Turnover, however, was down from £5.92m to £4.32m.
Major coups for the organisation recently include a winning bid to host the 2019 UCI Road World Championships, fighting off competition from Italy, Colombia, Germany and Canada for the prestigious event, which has not been held in the UK since 1982.
It is one of the biggest events on the professional cycling calendar, with the best male and female riders from around the globe competing for the chance to win the iconic rainbow jersey.
Welcome to Yorkshire has helped boost the region’s global reputation for hosting cycling events following Le Grand Depart, which was followed by two Tour de Yorkshire races which, alongside the 2016 ITU World Triathlon Series held in Leeds in June, has reinforced the county’s ability to stage major sporting events.
In October, Welcome to Yorkshire revealed the six start and finish locations for the Tour de Yorkshire 2017, a race which has become one of the biggest and best on the professional cycling calendar.
Welcome to Yorkshire said it continued to develop its digital communications throughout the year, launching its new design and platform for Yorkshire.com in February and since its launch it has had 4.7m page views and 1.3m visits.
Visitors to the site came from across the world, with top visiting countries including USA, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, France, Ireland, Spain and Italy.
Social media audiences and reach also grew in the period; followers to its Twitter feed grew by 40,000, up by 42%, while the agency delivered 1.63m emails to consumer inboxes.
Sir Gary said: “This was a landmark year for Welcome to Yorkshire which featured the first Tour de Yorkshire – a direct legacy of the ‘grandest ever Grand Départ of the Tour de France’.
“Team Sky rider David Lopez launched the first ever Yorkshire Bank Bike Library which aims to give every child in Yorkshire access to a bike and a £1m international marketing campaign for Yorkshire was unveiled. These were just some of the highlights from that period and we are delighted that it translated into a surplus for Welcome to Yorkshire. Welcome to Yorkshire is a not for profit organisation so all surpluses are used to help grow the economy of Yorkshire.
“2015 also saw a 20% increase in domestic overnight trips, a spending increase of 11% and Scarborough was named second most popular tourist destination, after London, for British holidaymakers between 2013 and 2015 (Visit Britain).
“We will be building on this success and remain confident that the best of our achievements are still ahead of us in particular with the growing success of the Tour de Yorkshire and the successful bid for Yorkshire to host the 2019 UCI Road World Championships.”
