Column: Promoting our county across the globe

Tempting tearooms, gorgeous gardens, heritage hotels, stylish shopping and excellent event venues, all in one sensational spa town. Harrogate has it all, doesn’t it?

As a regular visitor with my wife and children whilst also stopping by to see the grandparents, the vast expanse of glorious greenery and pretty parks offers that connection with nature alongside all the benefits of a large retail destination. It’s home to Bettys, Yorkshire Tea and the annual Great Yorkshire Show (over 130,000 visitors, 8,500 animals and Welcome to

Yorkshire’s Pink Pavilion). With The Dales on the doorstep it’s also the gateway to Yorkshire’s outstanding outdoors. What’s not to like but if you are reading this, you’ll know this already.

But how can we push this message out to a larger audience to attract them to come more often, stay longer and spend more?

Locals have every reason to love the location, but the tourist town also attracts visitors from right across the region, the country and the world.

As lockdown is lifting post-pandemic, every corner of the county is adapting to a new chapter and looking at ways ahead to secure a safe and enjoyable visitor experience for all. Tourism is worth £9bn to the Yorkshire economy and employs almost 225,000 people, but the sector has taken a big hit as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Welcome to Yorkshire has been working closely with businesses, attractions, venues and local authorities, following Government guidelines, on a Tourism Recovery Plan to re-open, recover and rebuild the county’s much-loved tourism industry as #YorkshireTogether

To help get businesses back on track Welcome to Yorkshire have created some initiatives to bring the county together and to encourage a financial kick-start with:

Free affiliate membership – yorkshire.com/membership - every tourism related business can sign up to be an affiliate member with Welcome to Yorkshire for free. Businesses will be able to access a raft of benefits including receiving weekly industry newsletters, accessing valuable business resources, being able to attend Welcome to Yorkshire webinars, vote for Welcome to Yorkshire’s charity of the year as well as being able to register to accept the Yorkshire Gift Card

The new Yorkshire Gift Card – encourages support for the county’s businesses from across the world through promotion and enabling a financial boost for all tourism, hospitality and retail organisations across the county, and is the ideal gift to be purchased locally, nationally and internationally, but for the benefit of Yorkshire. It’s free, so get involved now. www.yorkshire.com/giftcard.

Welcome to Yorkshire’s annual This Is Y glossy magazine, was launched as a monthly online publication in May, promoting Yorkshire and sharing Business As Unusual tips, to entertain and inform, featuring celebrity interviews and sharing celebrated chefs’ menus. In the latest issue, Harrogate’s Graeme Bandeira (The Yorkshire Post cartoonist) chats about his amazing art and how it’s captured a nation.

Yorkshire.com is a great platform for connecting the county and reaching out to the world. Welcome to Yorkshire has a global brand reach of over 23m and a social reach of almost 20m, so working together to showcase the county and what’s going on has never been more important.

Look out for Welcome to Yorkshire’s new personal membership that’s about to be launched across the globe that will include a tree planted in God’s own county. So watch this space!

Harrogate … you’re going to love it!