Plans to create billion pound tourism industry unveiled

PLANS to create a billion pound tourism industry for York over the next ten years have been unveiled.

After a year of planning and consultation, Visit York, with the City of York Council, revealed its ambitious plan to key players in the tourism industry at the National Railway Museum.

Coun Sonja Crisp, cabinet member for leisure, culture and tourism, said: “We have ambitious plans for tourism in York. Our strategy will be based on increasing visitor spend, attracting both leisure and business visitors from the UK and overseas and delivering a prosperous tourism sector for York over the next ten years.”

The billion pound figure will be generated through specifically targeting more overseas visitors from North America and Europe as well as emerging markets such as China. Tackling seasonality will be high on the agenda, encouraging visitors in the off peak season, as well as targeting the lucrative conference business sector and extending the length of stay of both leisure and business visitors.

Jane Lady Gibson, chairman of Visit York, said: “York’s brand name and brand values have high level recognition within the UK and internationally. By encouraging all businesses to put York at the heart of what they do, together we will have a stronger presence in a global tourism market. Partnership working will be the key to our success, building stronger working partnerships across the city to help deliver our collective ambitions. It’s full steam ahead now with our planning for the next decade.”

An important part of York’s tourism strategy will be to increase business visitors.
Average spend per trip of a domestic business visitor on an overnight trip in the UK is 1.5 times higher per night than for a domestic leisure visitor, which means an increase in business visitors will have a positive impact on annual visitor spend.

Promoting and improving York’s vibrant cultural offer will be a key ingredient when it comes to encouraging visitors to stay longer, resulting in a higher average spend per trip. And tapping into emerging overseas markets such as China will also help deliver on York’s tourism ambition; on average, an overseas visitor will spend 1.3 times more per night in the UK than a domestic staying visitor and they will stay 2.4 times longer than a UK visitor.

Visit York and the City of York Council are exploring the development of a new agency to bring together the work of Visit York, the City Council’s arts and culture teams as well as city centre management and some inward investment activity.