Tourism leaders are celebrating as more and more businesses give Welcome to Yorkshire membership the thumbs up after a campaign with the York, North Yorkshire & East Riding Enterprise Partnership led to an amazing 41% rise in membership.
Barry Dodd, Chair of the Enterprise Partnership said:
Tourism is a major employer in our area and important to the economy. Businesses told us that we should get behind the Y Brand and so quite simply, we did. There’s been a lot achieved over recent years and some amazing work to build on. This is a real vote of confidence and we hope that more and more businesses will follow suit.
Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire said:
This is fantastic news for us and great news for businesses. Over the years Welcome to Yorkshire has become a national success story, giving Yorkshire a national and international presence. In the Spring we worked with the Local Enterprise Partnership to get the message out there to businesses and tell them about the benefits of being part of that story. The end of this is about visitor numbers and businesses joining in our ambition to raise the game even further
Meika Tomlinson from Marmadukes Boutique Hotel in York recently joined Welcome to Yorkshire for the first time.
Meika added:
As a tourism business it seems that Welcome to Yorkshire will bring us substantial benefits and have an impact on that all important bottom line. It will help us to raise our profile and it’s good to be part of an organisation that is really is doing so much for Yorkshire.
The membership campaign involved a promotional film showing interviews with members as part of a day in the life of Welcome to Yorkshire, special invites to non-members and social media training for members. The two organisations will continue to work together as part of a wider campaign to double membership numbers in Yorkshire by April 2014.
