Outside body

Make It York (MIY) is formally a ‘destination management organisation’ (DMO) but could also be described as a ‘marketing development company’. 

MIY brings together 4 activities across the city:

·       Visit York

·       City centre and events

·       Market management

·       Culture

The rationale behind the creation of MIY was:

·       to reduce duplication and improve efficiency.

·       to provide a cohesive, ‘joined up’ approach to the task of promoting and developing York.

·       to develop a more commercial approach to traditional public sector led activities e.g. festivals and events.

The company is structured around the idea of serving 4 key customer groups:

·        Residents

·        Tourists

·        Students

·        Existing York businesses

MIY is a company with one shareholder: City of York Council (CYC). The remaining revenue comes from Visit York membership activity and from developing additional products and services.  A key requirement of MIY is to become increasingly commercial and reduce the reliance on public sector subsidy.

MIY is a classic ‘public/private sector partnership’.  The relationship between MIY and CYC is cemented by a ‘service level agreement’ (SLA). This sets out some clear objectives for MIY to achieve and is a public document. The SLA will be reviewed formally each year.

Staff are based at offices at 21 Parliament Street and 5 Silver Street in York.

The Board is drawn from across the private and public sectors.  Members of the Board are:

·       Mark Fordyce (MD, York Data Services and Acting Chair, MIY)

·       Sarah Loftus (MD, MIY)

·       Professor Chris Bailey (Cultural Policy Consultant)

·       Andy Laslett (City of York Council)

·       David Horne (MD, LNER)

·       Joan Concannon (Director of External Relations, University of York)

·       Richard France (MD, Oakgate Group)

·       Dame Julia Unwin (Chair, York St John Uni Governors)

·       Judith McNicol (Director, NRM)

·       Cllr C Douglas

·       Cllr P Widdowson

There are also 2 advisers to the Board:

·       James Farrar (York, North Yorkshire and East Riding LEP)

·       Lyndsey Turner Swift (VisitEngland)

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