Tourism in Yorkshire

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

May I start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Selby and Ainsty (Nigel Adams) on securing this debate? Tourism is an important issue in Yorkshire, and it has been important for me during my career. I spent many years working in the tourism sector, first running the marketing team at Going Places, and more recently on the board of Harrogate International Centre. Tourism is a critical part of our local economy, and it is a sector that drives our economic growth. It is the third biggest sector in the county as a whole, and it is the biggest sector of the economy for my part of the county, North Yorkshire. Overall, the industry employs 250,000 people and accounts for just less than 10% of our economy. There is an enormous scale to our tourism industry.

Tourism is a marvellous success story. Visitor numbers are up by 12% this year, which vastly outperforms other parts of the country even when building on high levels of visitors in the first place. I read that we have about 215 million visits to Yorkshire every year, which is more than to Disney worldwide, so the scale is significant. I want to say why the tourism sector in Yorkshire is doing so well, mention a little about the business tourism sector, which is often ignored, and comment on where we might perform a little better.

There are a number of reasons for the encouragingly strong performance by Yorkshire, but the main reason is the quality and variety of the tourism offer. The product is excellent, but it is not a single product and the key is in its variety and choice. Yorkshire delivers a world-class offer in many different sectors of the tourism industry. From family holidays to short breaks, no destination can better match the heady mixture of landscape and heritage offered by Yorkshire. Underpinning much of that is the stunning natural landscape. Yorkshire men often refer to our county as “God’s county”. I have occasionally had a bit of a joke or banter about that with tourism Ministers in the past, but we continue to refer to Yorkshire as God’s county because it is.

Last week, Mintel’s annual British lifestyles survey rated Yorkshire as the happiest place to live in the UK. Yorkshire men and women are more satisfied with their lives than people in any other part of the country, and one reason for that is the abundance of open spaces. The range of accommodation and hospitality available in our county has breadth and quality. Visitors can be catered for in different styles and to different budgets, and the product is very good. It is not possible to drive an industry if the product is poor.

The tourism sector has had a strong product for some years, so what is driving growth and causing visitor numbers to accelerate? I think that it is the combined effort by the industry and the way in which the county has set about selling itself. We saw a change some years ago with the move from marketing campaigns based on destinations, where towns and cities marketed themselves, to more co-ordinated campaigns based on the types of holiday and break available. That is a more customer-driven approach that shows fantastic insight and has been a practical way forward. It has meant the promotion of heritage, art, sport, spa breaks or whatever type of holiday people are looking for. I say sport with a heavy heart, because yesterday Yorkshire county cricket club was relegated. [Hon. Members: “ Shame”.] It is a shame, but I cannot really say any more about that.

That change in the tourism industry has proved extremely successful and combined with the great efforts made to improve the offer available and create new products. Tourism entrepreneurs are bringing new developments to market. Around the Harrogate and Knaresborough area alone, we are seeing new rooms and a spa at Rudding Park hotel, a new golf resort is planned at Flaxby, Harrogate’s Turkish baths have recently been refurbished, and we have the Royal Horticultural Society’s Harlow Carr garden and its successful partnership with Bettys tea rooms. Across the county there is ongoing investment in some of our major stately homes, such as Harewood house and Castle Howard, a location that my hon. Friend the Member for Selby and Ainsty will know well as he used to live about a mile away from it.

There are efforts to keep what Yorkshire offers live, fresh and new. People will have read recently about aspirations to bring the opening stages of the 2016 Tour de France to Yorkshire, and to host the British leg of the World Rally Championships. Aspirations are high. Underpinning all that, however, must be a culture of service. A holiday destination is not only about product but about the service offered by individuals. That is firmly understood. In Yorkshire, there is always friendly service and a welcoming approach.

There has been a recognition that the area must compete and win as a whole. Community groups and local authorities have been playing a major role. The excellent work of the In Bloom teams, which I support locally, makes our communities not only better places in which to live, but better places for visitors. The Harrogate In Bloom team and their partnership with the borough council’s very good parks department play a critical role in making Harrogate Britain’s premier floral town.

The improvements in Waterside in Knaresborough, driven by the Renaissance Knaresborough group, have improved the walk and the views of the river, the castle and the crag. That iconic Yorkshire view has been much improved.

My point is that we are seeing growth coming from a quality product, good service, an entrepreneurial spirit and effective partnership working, but also from the entrepreneurial vigour with which that is sold. At this stage, I join the praise for Welcome to Yorkshire. The whole team, under the dynamic leadership of Gary Verity, has displayed professionalism and zeal and has really made a difference. It is good to see some of the team in the Public Gallery today.

There is one part of our tourism industry that does not receive as much attention but that can be an important driver of business growth—business tourism. There are huge overlaps between leisure and business tourism. From my experience in Harrogate, I know that visitors who come for conferences often return to the county later for leisure breaks, too. However, that is a different market and, at the moment, it is a troublesome market that has obviously been affected by current economic conditions. As I have said, I was on the board of the Harrogate International Centre. That conference centre brings to the area 300,000 visitors and £150 million of spend and supports more than 5,000 jobs, so business tourism is clearly a major player in my constituency. It has been a success story, irrespective of the current trading difficulties. The drivers of success in that field are, again, investment and partnership working.

I will share a couple of examples to make my point. Investment in new facilities is fundamental. People have to keep their offer up-to-date, relevant and attractive, because many new entrants are challenging for business in the marketplace. In Harrogate at the moment, there is a £13 million scheme to build new exhibition halls. I look forward to that scheme coming online next year, as it will be a significant addition to the offer. I have been very involved in making that deal happen, which will be a huge tonic for our conference industry.

[Mr Greg Knight (East Yorkshire) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that sometimes local authorities could do more in encouraging business tourism, because one of the problems that most businesses face when organising a conference is lack of parking spaces? If we are to encourage more businesses and more business conferences to come to Yorkshire, we need to ensure that there is adequate car parking near any exhibition centre that may be operating.

[Andrew Jones]

I agree with my right hon. Friend. Ensuring that the offer is welcoming to visitors is critical. All local authorities should have that in mind all the time. Parking facilities are necessarily an important part of that, but so are other means of transport, too. Local authorities should be working together to secure better parking provision, and they should lobby Ministers and the Highways Agency for improvements in the road and rail networks. I strongly agree with my right hon. Friend’s point.

I was recently at the opening of a trade show, the home and gift show, in the Harrogate International Centre. The organisers told me that they would use the new facility, but I have also spoken to many delegates, who have commented on the importance of transport connections to the decision about where to locate a conference.

The biggest single show in Yorkshire is a mixture of business and leisure. The Great Yorkshire show, organised by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, is a magnificent event. It has bucked the trend in agricultural shows by going from strength to strength. Indeed, this year it was just four visitors off its record attendance, so if the Minister had been able to visit God’s county for the show and brought his family, we would have had a record! He should take that as a standing invitation. If he can come up to future events, I will be delighted to provide him with tickets—I would happily buy those. I hope that we can enjoy attending such an event in due course.

There is a strong partnership that helps to promote business tourism in my area. Called Destination Harrogate, it is an association of the leading hotels, which work with the conference centre, the local council and the media to bring business to Harrogate. I support its work, which has been excellent, but there is one example of partnership working that I want to draw to everyone’s attention—the Harrogate hospitality and tourism awards. Those awards are all about celebrating success and outstanding service. It is right to recognise and reward what makes a difference to customers. The awards are used by a variety of local players to showcase their offer to visitors and to build relationships.

I am conscious that I am describing the factors involved in making a successful sector even more successful, but it is not without its problems. Other hon. Members have spoken about funding. I want to highlight a feature that the industry is talking about a lot at the moment—a potential subsidy being paid by local councils to conference organisers to bring their conference to a venue. The team at the Harrogate conference centre think that that is a major factor in the market and have questioned whether it is appropriate for local councils to use council tax or Government grants in that way. I am not sure whether that is classed as state aid, so its legality might be questionable. The issue needs to be explored.

One factor that is a key challenge for the future of our industry is the transport infrastructure. There are 220 trains a day from London to Yorkshire, but we certainly have room for improvement. As a region, we have not enjoyed the same long-term investment in transport as other regions, but I can say to the people of Yorkshire that they have a new set of MPs, who are working together to address that issue. I have been working with the chamber of trade and commerce in Harrogate to secure better rail connections. We have secured our first direct London-to-Harrogate service in 20 years and are now working on a scheme of improvements to the Leeds, Harrogate and York line. I applaud the work done by the chamber of trade and commerce.

A major problem is our lack of air links. Direct links to Heathrow or Gatwick do not exist. We need connecting flights, but we do not have them. That is a factor in our performance in the international business exhibition market. Indeed, I think that transport is a reason why the UK underperforms in the huge international business exhibition market.

Overall, however, the tourism industry in Yorkshire is doing well. The reasons for that growth are quality products, new investment, excellent service, working together and good marketing. Those are sound ways in which to grow any industry for the future. The industry understands what drives it and is determined to make it even better. Indeed, there are lessons from Yorkshire that the rest of the country could learn. I hope that as a country we do learn them, because tourism could be at the heart of the economic recovery that we all need.