Issue - meetings

The Corporate Director of Economy and Place to present a report which reviews the role of Welcome to Yorkshire (WTY) in promoting York and Yorkshire to potential visitors, outlines current funding arrangements, and seeks approval for a financial contribution and proposed governance, monitoring and review arrangements to underpin this.

Resolved:  (i)      That a contribution of £55,378 be made to Welcome to Yorkshire, funded from the council’s share of the estimated final surplus balance from the 2019/20 North and West Yorkshire Business Rates Pool, to support delivery of the WTY short-term business plan in 2020/21 and the outputs, outcomes, governance and monitoring arrangement set out in Annex B to the report.

                   (ii)      That the proposal to further strengthen partnership working, and better reflect the pivotal relationship between York and Yorkshire in tourism promotion, be approved.

                   (iii)     That it be noted that York’s tourism sector relies on both Welcome to Yorkshire and Make it York to promote the city, and that the two organisations are mutually dependent in their work to promote York and Yorkshire to potential visitors.

Reason:     To provide funding to enable WTY to continue trading in the current year, subject to performance assessments against the Service Level Agreement, promote better joint working, and promote a clearer relationship between WTY and MiY which avoids duplication of effort.

The Corporate Director of Economy & Place / Head of Economic Growth presented a report which reviewed the role of Welcome to Yorkshire (WTY) in promoting York and Yorkshire to potential visitors and set out a request from WTY for funding to replace that previously sought from the West and North Yorkshire Business Rates Pool.

WTY had a similar role to Visit York, but focused at county rather than city level. It had launched its ‘reopen, recover, rebuild’ recovery plan, attached at Annex A to the report, on 19 June and had supported Make It York (MIY) and the tourism sector in adapting to the post-pandemic environment. Working more closely with WTY could benefit MIY and York. In addition to the annual subscriptions paid to it via the Business Rates Pool, WTY had expected to receive £1m from the Pool in 2020/21.  After a difficult year, they were seeking £1.4m in total from local authorities and National Parks in Yorkshire, in part to replace this. The request from York was for £55,378, with a supporting service specification (Annex B); this was recommended for approval.

In supporting the recommendations, the Executive Member for Culture, Leisure & Tourism drew attention to the crucial role of the tourism sector in the recovery programme for the city and thanked all those working in the sector in York.

Resolved:  (i)      That a contribution of £55,378 be made to Welcome to Yorkshire, funded from the council’s share of the estimated final surplus balance from the 2019/20 North and West Yorkshire Business Rates Pool, to support delivery of the WTY short-term business plan in 2020/21 and the outputs, outcomes, governance and monitoring arrangement set out in Annex B to the report.

                   (ii)      That the proposal to further strengthen partnership working, and better reflect the pivotal relationship between York and Yorkshire in tourism promotion, be approved.

                   (iii)     That it be noted that York’s tourism sector relies on both Welcome to Yorkshire and Make it York to promote the city, and that the two organisations are mutually dependent in their work to promote York and Yorkshire to potential visitors.

Reason:     To provide funding to enable WTY to continue trading in the current year, subject to performance assessments against the Service Level Agreement, promote better joint working, and promote a clearer relationship between WTY and MiY which avoids duplication of effort.