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 P Kilbane

·        Cllr D Smalley

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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