Yorkshire is probably one of the best-known individual regions in Britain – on a par with say Normandy or Bavaria. But has this brand strength translated into visitor numbers and if so, what benefit does this have for the economy? David Casey finds out.
Log on to Yorkshire tourism websites yorkshirevisitor.de, ontdekyorkshire.nl or dispuestoapecar.com and chances are you probably won’t understand much of the content, unless you’re fluent in German, Dutch or Spanish.
The multilingual sites have been established with a specific goal in mind – to attract more visitors from across Europe to the region and reduce Yorkshire’s reliance on the domestic market.
Spreading brand awareness, not just across the UK but also further afield, is key to Yorkshire Tourist Board’s (YTB’s) marketing efforts. As any business will know, a successfully managed brand can deliver a superior return on investment and a competitive advantage that is both long-term and sustainable. And in leisure terms, a customer’s perception of the brand can be as important as the physical tourism offer.
“Yorkshire’s brand strength is vital and I don’t believe there’s another regional brand outside London that is as strong,” says David Andrews, chief executive of the YTB. “Perhaps the Lake District comes close, but we have over 1,000 years of heritage here in Yorkshire, which is a key aspect.
“If you ask people what they think of when they think of Yorkshire and many will say the images that the word evokes, such as the sprawling countryside and beautiful landscapes. They will also point to the products that the region is renowned for producing, such as tea and beer.”
Yorkshire’s brand has historically been one of the region’s greatest strengths. George Bush senior once called it “The Texas of Britain”, while actor Tom Cruise has confessed to being a fan of the humble Yorkshire pudding. But, while brand awareness might be high, is this something that has translated into visitor numbers or had a direct economic bearing on the region?
The latest figures released would suggest so. In 2006 YTB’s Tourism Marketing Strategy – Bold Vision, Bright Future – outlined the regional objectives from 2006 to 2010. The overall aim was to increase the value of tourism earnings in Yorkshire and Humber by 5 per cent per annum from £4.2bn in 2003 to £5.9bn in 2010. Although the strategy pinpointed “major changes” that would need to be made, recent data taken from surveys including the UK Tourism Survey, International Passenger Survey and Day Visits Survey, imply that the industry has already exceeded that figure and is continuing to grow.
It’s estimated that tourism contributes £6.1bn to the Yorkshire economy, attracting 104 million UK and international travellers per year and supporting around 180,000 jobs. Day visits account for £4.1bn of that, with domestic visits totalling £1.6bn and overseas visits £387m. Compare that to neighbouring regions, such as the North East where the industry is worth £3.4bn and Lancashire, where it is worth £2.5bn, and it becomes clear how significant the sector is to the economy.
“There’s no denying that it is a very strong sector at the moment, which isn’t surprising considering how much the region has going for it” says Andrews. “We’ve got four national museums, numerous galleries, three national parks, market towns, vibrant cities, costal resorts – the list goes on. In fact, York Minster is one of the biggest attractions outside London.
“But although the new figures show that we’ve hit the £6bn mark, we still have a 5 per cent year-on-year growth targets we want to hit. Trading last year was more difficult, and in the current climate, it looks as if 2008 will be the same.”
Improvements in the quality of Yorkshire’s tourism offer should ensure continued growth. Andrews says standards are being driven up across the board, from major investments into new services and attractions, to the refurbishment of B&Bs and guesthouses. He points to Whitby as one area that has benefited from a programme of prolonged investment, thanks to funding the town has received over the last eight years.
“Ongoing investment has seen improvements to the public realm, pavements, the harbour and the Abbey among other things, and the quality really is there now. You could say that the hard work was rewarded in April as the town won gold in the Best Day Out in England category at the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence 2008,” he says.
Richard Saward, commercial director at the Wakefield-based National Coal Mining Museum for England and a member of YTB’s Tourism Operators Group, agrees that the rise in standards has led to a vibrant industry.
Ongoing investment at The National Coal Mining Museum has meant that visitor numbers remain continually high. Since the museum introduced free admission in 2002, there has been a year-on-year growth, up 4.5 per cent in 2007 to around 135,000 visitors. Now in its 20th year, the attraction has also been boosted by a £1.95m grant awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund that will be used to conserve the museum’s 130-year-old furnace shaft, as well as developing brand new interactive displays on the underground tour. Work is set to start later this year and be completed in late 2010.
“I think everywhere you go you’ll find that the product is quality, which is what counts,” he says. “It’s what people look for nowadays – they don’t expect to go to museums and have dirty toilets or dodgy cafés, they don’t go to B&Bs not expecting an en suite – these are basic things people expect to have. I think this was realised long ago across the region and so there is now real quality available. Couple this with the diversity on offer and it makes for a really strong proposition.”
Indeed, Andrew Scott, director at the National Railway Museum in York, says that, thanks to the standard of product on offer, such museums have a significant impact on the economy. According to recent research commissioned by the YTB, the National Railway Museum brought nearly 400,000 visitors to York in the 12 months from October 2006 to September 2007 that might otherwise not have visited the city. This has an obvious direct effect on the city’s bars, restaurants, hotels, taxis and car parks.
“The National Railway Museum makes a valuable contribution to the York and wider Yorkshire economy, having welcomed over 847,000 visitors during last financial year,” he says. “The Yorkshire Wheel, our 60m-high observation wheel, also continues to drive additional visitors to both the museum and to York, with 95 per cent of riders coming from outside the city.”
2007 also saw the completion of Search Engine, a £4m project that allows the museum’s library and archive collection to be made available to the public for the first time – a further sign that investing in quality is necessary if the sector is to remain vibrant. Other noteworthy investment during 2007 came in the form of the £5m redevelopment of the Royal Armouries in Leeds and the £2.7m corporate development at Rotherham-based Magna.
The healthy shape of the region’s tourism industry also has a number of large-scale regeneration projects breathing life back into communities and reviving redundant land. The Glasshoughton development in Castleford is one such example. Once home to a thriving colliery and coke works, the surrounding community was economically and socially dependant on the site until it closed in 1986, leaving a 336-acre site to stand derelict for almost ten years.
But since a massive reclamation exercise, the site is now home to entertainment centre Xscape, a 20-acre housing development, B&Q, Freeport Designer Outlet Village and numerous other leisure retailers, not to mention the variety of companies located on surrounding business park. New roads and a new train station have also been constructed, while plans are afoot to build a stadium for the Castleford Tigers rugby league team on the site.
“At present, Glasshoughton attracts over three million visitors every year, second only to Alton Towers in the UK,” says Stuart McLoughlin, managing director of Waystone, the developer behind the scheme. “This just goes to show that, by developing sites such as these, we are not only regenerating a whole area, but attracting new visitors and tourists to Yorkshire who in turn may like what they see and revisit or even make a permanent home here.”
And Xscape in particular has been a notable success. The £56m venue is home to a climbing wall, skate park and a cinema, not to mention SNO!zone, a 170m-long slope that’s covered in 1,500 tonnes of fresh snow.
Along with Castleford, Hull has enjoyed a resurgence in urban tourism thanks largely to regeneration activity. Colin Brown, chief executive of The Deep aquarium, believes that it is now starting to make the most of the assets it possesses. He was a key player in producing a tourism strategy 15 years ago that identified the city’s potential and paved the way for the construction of the flagship aquarium.
“Back then the city still had its historic centre and waterfront location – but it wasn’t a visitor destination,” he says. “However, we realised that there was massive scope to change this as we knew the city could support such a large-scale project as The Deep. The confidence that the city council and the Millennium Commission among others had in developing the brownfield site is now paying off as our success has drawn in more investment.”
But, while it’s clear Yorkshire is home to a number of high-quality and constantly improving attractions, such as The Deep, is the region making the most of its obvious assets? The National Coal Mining Museum’s Saward believes that in the past the YTB has been guilty of not maximising the riches that it has been afforded.
“There’s a huge range of fantastic attractions that just don’t get the coverage you’d expect,” he says. “It’s all very well saying ‘come and stay’, but people will want to know what they can do there as not everyone is swayed by shopping and walking. I would like to see culture as one of Yorkshire’s main marketing themes – it’s a strong card to play and should be played more often.”
Brown agrees. He says that, like all brands, it needs refreshing from time to time. “The brand should become more modern and younger,” he says. “It shouldn’t necessarily move away from the great things that the region has, like the countryside, but should stress what city breaks can offer. Regenerated cities like Leeds, Sheffield and Hull – places where ten years ago people would have smiled if you said you were going to stay there – are now serious short-break destinations.”
But YTB’s Andrews says it’s only natural that previous campaigns have focused on the scenic beauty that Yorkshire has as it will generate the best return on investment. The £2.8m Make Yorkshire Yours campaign is one such marketing activity.
It was launched in 2005 and aims to persuade potential visitors from affluent markets to place Yorkshire destinations on their must-see list. The multilingual tourism websites are also seeking to further this brand awareness, with campaigns being launched in European regions that airline Jet2 flies to.
“The marketplace is getting much more competitive and we need to compete,” says Andrews. “We need to continue to invest in quality of product and that’s from the smallest B&B to the largest attraction. We’ve also got to build up a wider portfolio of visitors, as we have a very strong reliance on the domestic market, but our international pull is weaker.”