Rose SivochaWith the Olympics looming it appears that many people, Londoners in particular, are searching for a retreat and escape from the madness that will descend upon the nation’s capital this August. There will be millions of extra people in the city; understandably, residents will be looking for alternatives as every aspect of their usual daily working lives becomes inundated with tourists and visitors both foreign and domestic. Welcome to Yorkshire has provided the solution to this predicament; they are appealing those wishing for another option with their domestic holiday campaign.
More than 250,000 homes in Greater London, have, or will, be mailed as part of the advertisement campaign which will be running until May. There will also be large advertisements in many of the transport network stations. Vicky Harris of the Welcome to Yorkshire enterprise said there was some suggestion that Londoners wanted “to get out of the city while the Olympics are on, it is an opportunity for us to benefit from that”.
As it stands tourism in Yorkshire and Humber is worth over £7 billion, which is more than the whole tourism expenditure in Ireland or Denmark. It appears that not only will Yorkshire enjoy an increase in tourism for the year due to visitors to the UK alone, but also domestic visitors will have quite an impact on the region. Some contributing facts to consider include:
- Leeds, York and the coastal resort of Scarborough are in the top ten most visited English Towns by UK residents
- York was voted as European Tourism City of the Year 2009.
- The Shambles in York has been voted as Britain’s most picturesque street in the 2010 Google Street Awards.
Yorkshire has nearly a third of the total area of National Parks in England (the North York Moors, most of the Yorkshire Dales and part of the Peak District) covering a fifth of the region’s land area. Yorkshire boasts two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering over 800 square kilometres of the region’s land area.
Yorkshire is home to six national museums; Royal Armouries, National Railway Museum, National Media Museum, National Coal Mining Museum, Eureka! Children’s Museum and National Fishing Heritage Museum.
With so much on offer, there is no reason to suggest this advertising campaign won’t be a success. The tourism industry employs nearly a quarter of a million people, representing 7% of the total job market in the in Yorkshire & Humber region. Therefore we should expect a boost to the local economy.
