It is commonly said that innovation is the major to survival in tough economic times. This adage has certainly been proven right at Welcome to Yorkshire, where constant innovation is the watchword behind every new initiative that the business begins.
Welcome to Yorkshire has picked up plenty of silverware lately, collecting several World Travel Awards. However, the $64000 measures of success for any tourism promoter are the figures. In a period during which many other industries struggled under the recession, Yorkshire managed to feature £1.1 billion to the price of its visitor economy since 2009.
So what’s the formula in a saturated market where the shopper is spoilt for choice As a tourist the arena really is your oyster, and it requires an inventive technique to lure visitors clear of cheap flights and package deals in foreign climes. For Welcome to Yorkshire the answer have been ambition, in both the size and diversity of selling endeavours it has undertaken.
Undoubtedly the best coup pulled off inside the history of the organisation, if not the county, is the snaring of the famous Grand Départ of the Tour de France for Yorkshire in 2014. Because the unprecedented plan was announced there was a groundswell of talk and exuberance for the county’s moment at the international stage. The success of the bid was faraway from assured, with strong competition from local rivals Edinburgh and international bidders Florence, however the benefits of winning the proper to stage it are vast; with estimated benefits to the local economy running at over £100 million.
National Media Museum – Bradford
To secure the Tour and the whole benefits it could bring with it, the county would therefore need someone to guide the charge and persuade the organisers that Yorkshire can be ready to add to the considerable existing legacy of the race. And it was Welcome to Yorkshire that stood as much as the duty. One of the tactics utilized by the organisation to expose Yorkshire off to the Tour was the policy of engagement on quite a few levels. a gigantic feature of the campaign was the beautiful promotional video showcasing the dramatic Yorkshire countryside that will hope to host the masses of riders and their teams in the course of the two day event. The Hollywood production values of the film showed off the important thing people, landscapes and sporting heritage that make Yorkshire.
However, the Tour wasn’t won entirely on glitz and glamour. A second thread of the campaign was the demonstration to the Tour committee of the extent of local support and interest a Yorkshire Départ would generate within the local public. While the terrain and its vistas can put the icing at the cake of a superb Tour, the true magic happens inside the welcome and support of the hosts in fostering the French spirit that keeps the race going.
To that end, the Welcome to Yorkshire team made every effort to illustrate Yorkshire as a destination instead of as a venue; flying the French delegates round the county in a helicopter and entertaining them at Harewood House, among the region’s most prestigious country houses, to sample Yorkshire lamb and other top local produce.
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Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The French were also introduced to the folk of Yorkshire during their visit, an analogous individuals who hoped to be lining the route in 2014 and collaborating within the grand tradition of the Tour. This included local council dignitaries whose areas could play host to the race should it come to Yorkshire in addition to others form the private and non-private sector. There has been also a face from the Tour’s past involved; Brian Robinson, Huddersfield resident and the 1st Briton to win a stage of the Tour de France.
It’s not only the Tour de France that has benefitted from Welcome to Yorkshire’s broad minded option to raising the profile in their county. Another imaginative cultural offering was the Brontës’ Yorkshire Garden on the Chelsea Flower Show, which won the coveted RHS gold award in addition to the People’s Choice award chosen by a poll of eleven,000.
The piece was element of a sequence of gardens entered by the organisation that highlighted the literary connection between the Brontë sisters and their home county, but was also a slightly more subtle advertisement for Yorkshire attractions. In response to the genuine world location of Top Withens, the stone locally sourced from a quarry nearby, the layout inspired by the now-famous Brontë Bridge often visited by the sisters; as an entire the garden relocated an atmospheric corner of Yorkshire to central London and gave people that saw it a taste for more.
This same principle was also applied to art on a world scale. Welcome to Yorkshire’s association with the key Hockney exhibition ‘A Bigger Picture’ saw the Yorkshire artist’s works featuring the Yorkshire Wolds displayed in major galleries including America and Germany. The tour attracted review from major newspapers in numerous countries and was greeted with fanfare wherever it went. But, most significantly for Yorkshire, a large number of the focal point was directed at Hockney’s vivid depiction of his home landscape over 50 years.
The Tour may be looming large at the horizon for Welcome to Yorkshire, with a lot planning and preparation to be done before the gigantic day. However, the broader tourism work continues apace. They’ve just launched Yorkshire’s bid to be recognised because the European capital of sculpture, a centre of excellence in both art and research.
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Hepworth Wakefield and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, three of the most important and most recognised artistic establishments inside the UK, are collaborating with support from Welcome to Yorkshire and humanities Council England so that they can enhance Yorkshire’s contribution to the country’s artistic heritage.
All in a day’s work.