Chance for tourism funding 'has been missed'
Tourism bodies in the region have missed out on funding.
Visit England has secured cash from the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) to help grow tourism in England, with funding now allocated for Marketing Leeds and Visit York. However, Welcome To Yorkshire and VHEY will not receive any.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome To Yorkshire, said: "We're delighted that funding is being made available for tourism, which is now such an important part of our economy, and we look forward to working with Marketing Leeds and Visit York to grow the tourism economy even further.
"However, we do have doubts about this scatter-gun approach to funding and many parts of the country are wondering why they have not received any.
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"We feel it is a missed opportunity not to give the funding to Yorkshire as a whole to build on the success of Brand Yorkshire."
Visit England has found about £500,000 each for Visit York and Marketing Leeds to promote two of Yorkshire's cities. But according to Welcome To Yorkshire, Visit England said there won't be money for it to support Yorkshire as a whole, because it is not a destination.
Welcome To Yorkshire said it believes its track record in growing tourism speaks for itself and it has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of Yorkshire as a world-class visitor destination. According to the county's official tourism agency, it has helped boost the visitor economy from £5.9 billion to £7 billion and has created 4,000 jobs.
Only last week, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt singled out Yorkshire as an excellent holiday destination and the Government's own tourism policy highlighted it as one of the country's "attack" brands, which should be developed to compete with London.
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