Agenda item

Considered – Presentation by Janet Deacon, Head of Tourism and Culture (Scarborough) and Dave Caufield, Assistant Director – Economic Development, Regeneration, Tourism and Skills on the draft Destination Management Plan (DMP).

Some of the key points highlighted in the presentation are as summarised below:

·       It is a challenge to develop one DMP to cover the diversity of places across a county the size of North Yorkshire.

·       We need to continue to emphasise the local distinctiveness of places and local brands and identifying where we could do more.

·       The value of the visitor economy is estimated to be worth between £1.5bn – £2bn to the local economy, attracting between 33 to 37 million visitors – 10% of the total North Yorkshire economy. 

·       The ambition is to grow the value even further by around 4% to 5% year on year and grow the number of overnight visitors to more than 20% of all visits.

·       Having one co-ordinated plan which is private sector led with a clear steer from the Council will ensure that the industry is shaping the priorities and actions to support future growth.

·       In order to submit a bid to become a Local Visitor Economy Partnership, a Destination Management Plan that is under development is required.

·       Officers are confident that the priorities set out in the DMP reflect those of the sector.

·       There is a need to build a definitive evidence base for tourism across North Yorkshire in a consistent way to have a clear idea of the overall offer to set measurable targets.

·       As part of the DMP, it will be crucial to convert day visitors into staying visitors, to attract and disperse visitors so that they come to the current honeypot areas but experience and explore the rest of North Yorkshire.

·       Some feedback from the stakeholder consultations was that transport accessibility is key, clarity over who manages which area is needed, and how businesses can engage with these was important.

·       The recruitment and retention of staff in the tourist and hospitality industry is a major issue, but there is pride in the destination and this should be preserved and nurtured.

·       There is an opportunity for collaboration between stakeholders for quality product development. A repository is required to collectively work together to maximise the opportunity to showcase local producers to visitors.

Following this, questions raised by the committee included:

·       What the process for gaining Local Economy Visitor Partnership (LVEP) status is going forwards and what the next steps are to put in place a Destination Development Partnership for Yorkshire as a whole.

·       The night time economy in North Yorkshire should be highlighted in the DMP and the availability of parking to encourage visitors.

·       The ‘Yorkshire’ brand is a strong one from a tourist point of view and should not be denigrated.

·       The importance of transport connectivity to support the visitor economy in North Yorkshire

Resolved – To note the presentation and for the comments received to be taken into account in the final version of the North Yorkshire Destination Management Plan.