Make It York - Business DeliveryPlan 2022/25

 

 

Corporate Services Delivery Plan 2022-25

Who we are and what we do

 

We directly deliver a range of services for the benefit of the MIY business, residents, and visitors. These include:

Provision of Financial Services and Corporate Services for departments within MIY.

Provision of Visitor Information Service.

Provision of Governance Services.

Office Management.

Our service challenges

 

Meeting the pressures of operating a 7 day a week Visitor Information Centre (VIC) with limited budgets against rising partner and customer expectations.

Continuing to develop our financial services to reduce costs and improve inefficiencies.

Addressing outstanding bad debts and processes to allow more flexibility, especially for the Visit York membership scheme and York Pass.

Working with our new Auditor for 2023/24.

Managing the new office and Visitor Information Centre with limited space and budget.

Our service opportunities

 

Having a physical VIC means that we can engage with a large number of visitors who come to York, thereby improving services that the tourism sector provides.

40% of VIC interactions are with residents, which enables us to improve the information available to them and what they can experience in York.

The development of the new VIC at Parliament Street and Visitor Pod at York Station.

Improve our financial and budget information for our Board and Shareholder, which will enable us to predict income and expenditure more effectively. Key opportunity to manage cash flow more effectively through our improved financial rules and regulations.

Delivering MIY Business Plan Outcomes

 

The Make It York Board has agreed the following values:

 

Entrepreneurial - We will champion new ways of working. We will deliver great results. We will always be constantly improving.

Collaborative - We will work in partnerships. We will share our resources. We will support our teams.

Responsible – We will put customers first. We will do what we say. We will be true to our City.

Ambitious - We will make York the best place it can be. We will make MIY the best company it can be. We will become the best team we can be.

We are committed to working in partnership with other City of York Council services and partner organisations to deliver these priorities.

Delivering against our CYC SLA and Corporate Priorities

 

Generate income from activities to support the delivery of the Business Plan and these Objectives; and

Work with the Council and other partners to attract funding to support and enhance the delivery of the activities set out below.


Business Plan Objective

Priority

What good will look like by March 2024 (unless stated)

The things we need to do to achieve this

Update from October 2023 – March 2024

We want more effective financial processes

 

To support the Board in making decisions.

To support our operational teams to be able to manage their budgets more effectively.

To enable our contractor and local businesses to be able to pay us on time and vice versa.

 

Ensuring sustainable funding for MIY and to be commercially viable over next 3 years.

Financial management processes and procedures that meet the needs of the company.

Encourage local businesses to be on preferred supplier list or tendering process.

 

Robust financial monitoring in place with accurate forecasting on a monthly basis.

We will move to outcomes-based budgeting ensuring that MIY resources are directly linked to the MIY Business Plan and priorities. It will provide evidence to clearly demonstrate the outcomes being achieved for the resources we use and the impact those outcomes have. This ensures that MIY delivers value for money and priorities its limited resources effectively.

Ensure robust tendering and contract management is in place. Purchase locally where feasible and have clear robust processes based on quality and price.

An operationally robust HR and team management system implemented to better manage sickness, appraisals, training, performance, and objectives.

 

Delivery Plans developed within the context of approved budgets.

Review of financial management system to ensure fit for purpose.

Review of financial ordering systems and processes to ensure that effective budget management and appropriate authorisation is adhered to.

 

 

 

 

Financial awareness training for staff.

 

 

 

 

Introduction of Direct Debit for Market Traders reducing staffing resources and reducing bad debt.

 

 

 

Commitment to pay all invoices within 30 days.

Review of procurement and contracting policies and procedures annually.

HR agile management introduced company wide, and training provided for all staff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Options explored to move away from the current financial operating system undertaken. Awaiting the new Head of Finance to commence to progress further.

Ongoing.

Direct Debit system for Shambles in Place for significant number of traders following the introduction of a new management system.

Will be assessed as part of the new financial software however 80 of supplier 85% are paid within 30 days.

HR system fully embedded which enables management of absence, assets, and performance more effectively.

Ongoing.

Assessed each ¼.

Will be carried out annually.

We want more people to use the Visitor Information Centre (VIC)

 

Making York famous with a first-class visitor welcome.

Creating an excellent information service for visitors coming to the city both digitally and in person.

Creating unrivalled

 

Delivering first-class customer experience.

Contributing to increasing participation and visits to the City Centre and creating a visitor focussed City.

 

The new Visitor Information Centre will provide key services in the heart of the City Centre to enhance the visitor experience and access to information will enable them to make informed decisions.

VIC will improve the wider city offers and enhance the visitor welcome through physical improvement and investing in staff.

Improve roaming visitor information services at key gateways including York Station.

Provide high quality services and create positive visitor experiences.

Maximise economic benefits by promoting relevant retail products.

Research into users and non-users to better align services to user needs.

Assess usage of Visitor Information Centre.

Assess the economic impact of the Visitor Information Centre i.e., net spend per customer.

Assess statistics of origin of visitors to Visitor Information Centre to better cater services.

 

 

 

 

 

Began collecting nationality data to identify visitor trends

Regular meetings are in place with partners to ensure up to date knowledge for front-line staff.

Some layout changes will be explored following feedback from staff and customers and to enable better retail offer.

Ongoing

 

 

Introduction of local supplier produce in VIC.


 

experiences for visitors across the city.

 

 

Work collaboratively with partner organisations to ensure that staff are up to date with visitor experiences.

 

Continue to look at new services provided for visitors to improve the quality of our services.

 

 

 

Re-model and refurbish the shop to ensure that visitors receive excellent customer service and are offered a friendly, helpful experience.

 

Advocate the benefits of tourism to residents and businesses.

 

 

Continue to explore innovative ways to increase income, sell local merchandise and engage and promote local small businesses.

 

Identify a range of new sales lines and local products.

Key lines are being reviewed and refreshed– sourced more reliable suppliers. In place for Xmas.

Developing additional in-house training to support team.

Recruiting volunteers – focusing on varied demographics.

Team visiting local attractions during quiet periods to gain knowledge and increase member relationship.

We want residents to be proud to use our Visitor Information Service

 

Creating a front of house that is welcoming and informative.

Developing our resources and availability, providing a service to our members to enable them to be visitor ambassadors

 

 

 

 

 

·         Ensuring our City Centre is attractive and befitting our city’s heritage.

 

 

 

·         Strong Communities.

 

 

 

 

 

Increase volunteers working with MIY, upskilling and training new recruits.

Offer a unique customer experience to visitors, residents, and businesses.

Develop the Information Service into a social and community

space which exhibits 'York” and can adapt to changing customer attitudes and behaviours and the increasing popularity of online bookings and tourism guides.

 

 

 

 

 

Deliver a Tourism Ambassador Programme for the VIC.

Host events and create opportunities for local people to volunteer throughout the summer.

Deliver regular in-house training and familiarisation visits to local attractions.

Create staff development opportunities and develop rapports with local attractions.

 


 

Market and Events Delivery Plan 2022-25

Who we are and what we do

 

We directly deliver a range of services for the benefit of business, residents, and visitors.

 

These include:

 

Events and Festivals

Shambles Market

 

To support businesses, provide affordable services to residents and provide destinations for visitors to York.

 

These provide:

 

Our major events programme supports the City Centre. These events not only provide the opportunity to engage with local people to provide cultural activities but also attract a considerable number of tourists into the city.

The Shambles Market operates 7 days a week and hosts the largest number of independent traders in York providing a mixture of commodities from everyday essentials to the unusual and surprising.

Our service challenges

 

Meeting the pressures of operating a 7 day a week market with limited budgets against rising partner and customer expectations.

Continuing to develop our markets in the context of changing shopping habits.

Addressing long-standing repairs and maintenance issues on the market, many of which are aging.

Engaging more effectively with a wider

proportion of the City’s residents

Delivering and operating service within agreed budgets.

Our service opportunities

 

Holding major events means that we can engage with many residents who may not otherwise access and participate.

 

The development of the Shambles Market as a key community hub provides us with significant opportunities for partnership working with other services and organisations.

Delivering Business Plan Outcomes

 

The Make It York Board has agreed the following Values:

 

Entrepreneurial - We will champion new ways of working. We will deliver great results. We will continually improve.

Collaborative - We will work in Partnerships. We will share our resources. We will support our teams.

Responsible – We will put customers first. We will do what we say. We will be true to our city.

Ambitious - We will make York the best place it can be. We will make MIY the best company it can be. We will become the best team we can be.

We are committed to working in partnership with other City of York Council services and partner organisations to deliver these priorities.

Delivering against our CYC SLA and Corporate Priorities

 

Work towards increasing the value of the visitor economy through promoting innovation and higher quality in the existing offer.

Encourage a high value visitor economy investment and attract higher spending visitors.

Day-to-day management of the Shambles Market; operation of the Market Charter on behalf of the city.

In consultation with the CYC, develop a new Markets Strategy.

Support new retailers to trade.

Work towards a 5% year-on-year growth in surplus.

City Centre vibrancy – contribute expertise, ideas and experiences to the MyCityCentre Project which will set the City Centre strategy.

Commercial events – Keep the City Centre relevant and enticing by curating a programme of public events in the foot streets.

Run commercial events such as the Christmas Market in a safe and sustainable manner, to generate commercial opportunities for local businesses and generate surplus for investment in the economy.

Evening economy – My City Vision.


 

Business Plan Objective

Priority

What good will look like by March 2024 (unless stated)

The things we need to do to achieve this

Update from October 2023 – March 2024

We want more businesses to prosper here

 

Supporting local businesses with advice and information.

 

Building strategic partnerships locally, nationally, and globally.

 

Attracting and retaining the right investment and talent for the city.

 

 

 

Manage the Shambles Market by operating the City’s Market Charter and supporting existing and new market retailers to bring even more vibrancy to the Market.

 

Ambitious Entrepreneurial Collaborative.

 

 

 

 

Contributed to strong and sustainable neighbourhoods working with residents and businesses to sustain resilient communities by providing places for the community to come together access affordable, high-quality goods.

Customer focus: The market will expand its customer base, attracting and selling to a broader spectrum of shoppers. Working with traders, Make It York will review the market’s trading hours, improve its marketing and promotions, and explore new sales routes, e.g., on-line sales and click and collect.

Mix of Commodities: Over time, the commodity mix will evolve within the market, with a focus on using up spare pitch capacity to achieve a balance of traditional and new products and services, recognising changing demand. All vacant pitches across the Shambles Market will be occupied with a waiting list of traders.

Ambitious standards: The market traders and management will have improved performance by regularising trader presence, improving customer service, adhering to license conditions and traffic management orders, and ensuring visible product pricing. A good conduct agreement will be worked up to enshrine these standards.

The market will have benefited from local development and investment enjoying new seating, greening up areas and new solar stall roofs.

This will support inclusivity, accessibility, dwell time and spend.

 

 

 

 

Exploit the opportunities that the Shambles Market offers for the city economy, its residents, and visitors by:

 

Developing and delivering a distinctive and high impact marketing and communications plan for the market and its businesses.

Engaging young people and encouraging them to become stall holders.

Promoting the market as a place for shopping with and for young people.

Creating a community space.

Developing a programme of additional markets on different days or 'special' types of markets e.g., farmers’ markets, totally locally, recycle, reuse and Vegan etc.

Creating pathways and incentives for new businesses to choose the Shambles Market as its choice to do business, with support in starting up and becoming sustainable, and offering provision for existing traders to develop and grow.

Developing a Markets Strategy to ensure that it is at the heart of local neighbourhoods and a visitor attraction.

Develop a Health Check of the Shambles Market to ensure sustainability in the long term.

Deliver sustainability initiatives that reduce the impact of the market operations.

Continue to strengthen partnerships with traders.

Install new Wi-Fi to support traders to run their businesses.

Install CCTV to address design out crime.

 

 

 

 

The period of trading after Christmas (known as Kipper season) has proved to be as expected with a low number of regular and casual traders operating.  The end of February sees more traders returning.

The review of the rules and regulations commenced in March.

The Balance of Trade Policy previously introduced will also be reviewed as part of the rules and regulations.

Discussion has commenced with CYC regarding a draft lease for Shambles Market. Make IT York has sought expert advice in progressing this.

Trader representative meetings are being amalgamated so that retail and food come together.

The market will see improvements in repairs and maintenance by replacing all light bulbs with energy efficient alternatives, food court benches being refurbished and replacement of some canopies. All of which provide a better trading environment for traders and shoppers.

 

 

We want more people to visit York

 

Make York famous as a first-class destination for leisure, business, and study.

 

Create unrivalled experiences for visitors across the city

 

Support local businesses who help make this happen

 

 

 

Entrepreneurial Collaborative Ambitious Responsible

 

 

 

We will have delivered five commercial events including the Christmas Market, Ice Trail, Spring and Summer events and a Sculpture Trail.

Curated a year-round programme of public events, catering to peak and off-peak times of the year to encourage seasonality, and create a high-quality, vibrant, and attractive city offer that will provide a consistent and uplifting experience for residents and visitors.

Our provisions are utilised by other partners to engage with residents and visitors.

More tourists visit the district and stay for longer, spending more to support our economy.

Markets and Events act as key drivers in attracting shoppers into our town and City Centre

Make our events examples of best practice, to increase quality and where possible, create more sustainable events

§ 

 

 

 

Review of current events and festivals programme to identify gaps and opportunities to develop an Events Strategy, drawing on the existing Cultural Strategy, refreshed Our City Vision, and emerging Tourism Strategy, and other major local strategies.

Develop an annual calendar of events and festivals which add value to the York experience and encourage visitors and resident participation.

Continue to develop major events and festivals such as St Nicholas Christmas Fair and Ice Trail.

Develop itineraries for events and festivals suggesting visits to attractions, food and drink and accommodation to drive longer stays.

Strive to deliver events that are more environmentally sustainable and build on the single use plastic ban and explore innovative ways of being more sustainable.

Forge partnerships to enable third party delivered events that are utilising City Centre public spaces

Ensure all events are held within current laws, regulations, Health and Safety guidance and delivering on sustainability

Benchmark and evaluate satisfaction of events and festivals with local City

Centre businesses, Shambles Market traders, visitors and residents

 

 

 

Work ongoing as part of SLA discussions.

Looking at options to expand the events programme looking at Yorkshire Day, Halloween, World Food offer market.

Meetings have taken place with third party operators to explore themed specialty market options.

The Ice Trail leaflet Promoted Shambles market to visitors.

Make it York do not allow diesel generators to be used at events.

All relevant staff have undertaken and passed the ACT training.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We want our residents to be proud to live here

 

Create incredible events that our communities love

 

Develop our dynamic and engaging cultural and arts scene

 

 

Develop a programme of support and training for new volunteers to assist at events and festivals

Dialogue continues with York Access Forum to ensure that events and Markets take full account of accessibility for residents and visitors.  A meeting was attended in Feb and a workshop in March.

 

 

 

 

Responsible Ambitious Collaborative Entrepreneurial

 

 

 

 

Develop proposals that demonstrate a balance for everyone sharing public spaces

Deliver an annual events programme that meets the needs of residents that they can participate, experience, and learn

 

 

 

By the end of 2023 we will have a draft booking system/ licence procedure for buskers and street entertainers for consideration with partners to make sure that residents, businesses, and visitors get the best experience and that street performers get the chance to shine and showcase their talents

 

 

 

A draft Spaces and Places policy will be developed for partner consultation to maximise the use of city centre spaces as a commercial asset whilst supporting creative individuals and local businesses.


Culture Delivery Plan 2022-25

Who we are and what we do

 

We directly deliver a range of services for the benefit of the MIY business, local residents and visitors.

these include:

 

Delivery of the Culture Strategy

Cultural services, as outcomes of the Culture Strategy, including the Culture Forum and Culture Exec, and development of citywide partnerships and funding opportunities

Cultural activations

Tourism research and insight and MIY business insight

Our service challenges

 

Lack of core Culture Strategy funding to enable key initiatives and activations to take place

Broad network of relationships to maintain

Dependent on partner data to ensure tourism data is fully reflective of citywide trends (can be difficult to obtain)

Our service opportunities

 

Opportunities for partnership development, resulting in exciting citywide projects and bids, that enable us to deliver major elements of the Culture Strategy

Ability to help shape cultural landscape, to ensure culture provision becomes inclusive, relevant and accessible to residents and visitors, including young people, in line with the ambitions of the Culture Strategy

Ability to monitor and identify tourism and broader data trends, to help shape future business needs.

Delivering MIY Business Plan Outcomes

 

Make It York Board has agreed the following values:

 

Entrepreneurial - We will champion new ways of working. We will deliver great results. We will always be improving

Collaborative - We will work in Partnerships. We will share our resources. We will support our teams.

Responsible – We will put customers first., We will do what we say. We will be true to our city.

Ambitious - We will make York the best place it can be. We will make MIY the best Company it can be. We will become the best team we can be.

 

Culture and Wellbeing Priorities:

 

Develop, promote, and manage the City’s Culture Strategy, York's Creative Future, 2020 - 25. by working with partners to deliver an ambitious and cohesive range of programmes. Promoting the culture and creative sector through media channels, policy work, networking opportunities, working groups and forums

Develop an Events Framework for the Culture Strategy that enables the City to proactively identify events it wishes to host and attract

Promote and maximise York’s UNESCO

Creative City of Media Arts Status

Support cultural events and initiatives, such as the York Mystery Plays

 

We are committed to working in partnership with other City of York Council services and partner organisations to deliver these priorities.

Delivering against our CYC SLA and Corporate Priorities Key Deliverables:

Culture Strategy An ambitious and cohesive

programme of cultural development for the city covering the arts, heritage and creative industries

Events Framework A city wide Events Framework consistent with the aims of the cultural strategy that enables the city proactively to identify the events that it wishes to host and attract and also enables the Council to respond in an informed way when opportunities are brought forward

UNESCO designation Ensure the people of York understand and appreciate the importance of York’s UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts status and maximise its impact.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Delivering BusinessPlan priorities 2023/24

 

Business Plan Objective

Priority

What good will look like by March 2024 (unless stated)

The things we need to do to achieve this

Completion date

Update from October 2023 – March 2024

Ensure the ongoing development, delivery, and promotion of the city's Culture Strategy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ensuring the successful delivery of the York Trailblazers programme.

 

 

 

 

Promote and maximise York’s UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts status .

Culture Forum and Culture Executive now established, to drive future Culture Strategy development: majority of strategy Working Groups in place. Continue to act as co-chair and secretariat for the Exec and Forum, shaping the development of the strategy, and empowering Culture Executive members to lead and develop their strategy priority areas further.

 

Continue to deliver the Cultural Wellbeing Grants programme, alongside City of York Council (funding dependent, through the Better Care Fund), to support charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups who work in the arts for health.

 

Working alongside York Civic Trust and key partners on an exciting citywide programme of events and activities, including grant funding, marketing and promotion, and a large-scale sculpture trail

 

 

Support the future sustainability of the status and focal point of the UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts designation

 

 

 

Support York’s bid for UNESCO

World Heritage Status

Engaged Culture Forum covering broad ranging topics of importance to the culture and creative sector, networking opportunities and knowledge sharing.

Empowered Culture Exec, who together steer the Culture

Strategy’s future direction, with Heads of Priority Areas leading

on and developing their strategic areas.

Working Groups who together support the Exec and Forum to

drive forward the strategy’s key Priorities.

Applied for one major funding bid in 2023-24 that supports and helps drive forward the ambitions of the Culture Strategy.

Explore the potential for a York Creates Fund.

 

 

Continued delivery of the Cultural Wellbeing Grants programme

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trailblazers hubs live on MIY and VY sites, high-profile campaign to ensure resident engagement, co-production workshops have taken place with heritage experts, artists, schools and community groups to shape the 2024 sculpture trail, grant programme has been delivered to enable community groups to get involved and their own trailblazing history and heritage stories.

 

 

UCCN Monitoring Report 2022 completed (timelines tbc at present as UNESCO reconfiguring reporting process)

Profile-raising for the designation, in line with the vision of the Culture Strategy, working closely with the Guild of Media Arts and city partners

 

NB – we won’t know the outcome of the first bid round until Feb 2023 – if we reach the next stage of bidding, it will mean continued co-working with partners and the York UNESCO World Heritage Status Steering Group to develop our proposals.

Ongoing co-chairing and secretariat role to Culture Forum and Exec

Co-working with Exec and wider sector to shape Culture Strategy’s future

direction

Deliver key programmes in line with Culture Strategy objectives (Trailblazers etc. - see below for more info)

Continue to promote the culture and creative sector through media channels, policy work, networking opportunities, working groups and forums

Developing work with Culture Exec for Arts Council bid in 2023-24

York Creates Fund development started through small creative commissions, with proceeds going towards fund pot and future projects

 

 

 

Cultural Wellbeing – grants programme ongoing and developing evaluation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Governance structures in place – internal project team in place with CDM as project lead

Deliver ongoing marketing campaign

Deliver grant-giving programme

Planning and logistics in place for sculpture trail – to launch in April 2024, running through to c. September 2024.

 

 

 

 

Ongoing collaborative working

UNESCO designation key part of Culture Strategy and Tourism Strategy and marcomms and policy work reflects this: ensure ongoing profile raising

Ongoing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer 2023 (exact date tbc as funding confirmation dependant)

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 2024, trail completion Sept 2024

 

 

 

 

 

Ongoing

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tbc – awaiting bid outcome

 

 

 

Trailblazers programme ongoing – governance structures in place

Ongoing marketing campaign- launched creating with tansy beetle artwork in Museum Gardens

Grants now delivered to 12 community organisations

Trail development ongoing

 

 


 

Develop an Events Framework for the Culture Strategy that enables the city to proactively identify events it wishes to host and attract.

 

Framework forms part of broader Events Strategy, which aligns with Culture Strategy and Tourism Strategy

 

 

Support cultural events and initiatives, such as the York Mystery Plays.

Ensuring development of an Events Strategy, which dovetails with other city strategies, including the Culture, Tourism and Economic Strategies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advocacy for cultural events and initiatives within city with key stakeholders and profile raising

Development of a new Events Strategy that reflects MIY and the

city’s ambition for events and festivals

Cultural events and installations with opportunities for cultural practitioners within the Events Strategy, to ensure cultural engagement, working with the culture sector

Aligns with the Culture Strategy and Tourism Strategy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ongoing awareness raising of cultural events and initiatives

Internal discussion of needs regarding an Event Strategy and Framework

Consultation with key city groups – Culture Forum, Tourism Advisory Board, and others regarding requirements for Event Strategy

Drafting strategy

Publication date tbc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§   Continue to advocate for cultural events and initiatives

§   Signpost organisers towards relevant funding opportunities

§    

Tbc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ongoing

Needs further discussion with the council to understand their current key requirements for the Events Framework.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and Insight informs and underpins our work

Delivering annual Visit York Visitor Survey

Evaluating MIY events and festivals

Tourism dashboard MIY dashboard

Delivery of annual Visit York Visitor Survey, with key info and trends informing Tourism Strategy development and marketing campaigns

Evaluation of key MIY events

Ongoing measuring of success/ dashboards in place, to simplify and make more impactful way of communicating key measures and for tracking progress, identifying where need to improve

§   Developing and ongoing measuring of success/ dashboards

§   Quarterly business-wide research and insight meetings

§   Working closely across teams to gain awareness of current key campaigns, data needed, and to share understanding of research trends

§   Sharing key data, which feeds into key company priorities and their development

Ongoing

Annual Visit York visitor survey ongoing. New STEAM data shows York with 1.7bn economic impact of tourism

New MIY and tourism quarterly dashboards in place

New event evaluation surveys and process in development

Working across teams to share

research and embed across organisation


Delivering BusinessPlan priorities 2023/24

 

Business Plan Objective

Priority

What good will look like by March 2024 (unless stated)

The things we need to do to achieve this

Completion date

Update from October 2023 – March 2024

Promote York as a leisure, business and visitor destination.

 

Partner with organisations such as VisitBritain and VisitEngland,

ensuring York is included in leading International, National

and Regional marketing initiatives

 

Increasing visitor spend in the city along with footfall into the City Centre by 5%

Increasing the membership model by 2% year on year

Maintaining a retention rate of above 94%

Working with the tourism sector to increase GVA growth

Working with the tourism sector to increase private sector led investment into the City Centre including the evening economy

Pioneering new ways of managing cultural tourism and eco-tourism.

Establishing a greater understanding of business visitors in order to create a business marketing campaign resulting in more visits and a conferencing strategy

 

An increase of 5% of followers, impressions, and engagement with our social media channels

Increased engagement with both Visit York and Make It York websites

Increased footfall, occupancy, average length of stay and overall value of the visitor economy by developing marketing campaigns aimed at local, national and global audiences

Recruiting and maintaining campaign partners across the sector to promote York to all audiences

Targeting international visitors to re- engage and welcome them back to the city (currently make up 3.8% of overall visits to the city)

Maintaining visitation numbers from the domestic market

Growing our press coverage by 5%

Ongoing

During this period, we have held xxx member events, this includes Halloween walking tours, Christmas member events, and hosted the Visit York Tourism Conference, attended by 150 members.

 

Membership retention is 84% with more members engaging in activity, a specific success is the advent social media competition piece. New membership is challenging with a number of businesses holding back budgets and limited new openings in the city. We will continue to work with prospects to showcase the benefits of membership.

 

We will also be approaching lapsed members to re-engage showcasing our campaign plans for the upcoming year.

 

We continue to work with North Yorkshire, and this is founded within the LVEP status. Activity includes Trade show events, joint partnership objectives and our continued partnership with North York Moors.

 

Develop and grow our Visit York membership scheme

 

Ensure members are engaged with marketing campaigns and feel valued in the city and represented

Engage with new businesses in the hospitality sector offering support and opportunity via our channels

Understand business need and provide marketing solutions to support initiatives

 

 

Use research analysis to create key objectives per campaign and specify target audiences

Hold a minimum of 12 member events per year, focusing on key speaker slots about the industry, ensuring true insight into the business needs of members

Increase our membership by 2% (revenue)

Increase individual contacts with members ensuring all information is communicated efficiently along with understanding how businesses promote the city and thereby using

that to influence campaign activity

Ongoing

Campaign partnership discussions are taking place in preparation for the upcoming year. All are positive. A key focus for this year's campaign will be around Green Tourism.

 

Member engagement is rising, and membership renewal conversations have started, to support this, we have created a new activity report all in relation to the members' activity specifically.

 


 

Convene and support the implementation of the Tourism Strategy

 

 

Support partners with the

implementation of the Tourism Strategy

 

Tourism Strategy is waiting for approval with CYC

Encourage all York residents to enjoy the tourism and cultural offer of York including year-round promotions and targeted

residents’ events

 

 

Support all areas of MIY with marketing and engagement in order for them to fulfil objectives set

Work with the events team to ensure maximum coverage of events and promotions

Grow resident engagement by 5% giving a larger platform of promotion to resident audience

Ongoing

 

 

 

 

 

March and April 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 4th and 5th 24

Newsletters sent weekly to our resident database outlining things to do in York that week.

 

The new Snooks trail will launch on 2nd March with a big focus on resident promotion, this is done via media interviews, press releases and posts on all MIY/VY social channels. We are also working with sponsors on messaging and creative in which they will be promoting to their local audience.

 

York Ice Trail was a great success and enjoyed by both residents and visitors.