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Staycationing – a case in point being Yorkshire
TravelMole guest comment by Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire
In May last year one in five people who took a holiday abroad in 2008 claimed they were planning to holiday in the UK in 2009.
The number of people travelling abroad dropped considerably in 2009, down 16% on 2008 and Yorkshire was one of the biggest winners with many people choosing to visit the region for their summer holidays.
Staycationing was a definite trend in Yorkshire. Whether that was the result of the economic downtown, job insecurity and the poor exchange rate of the pound is debatable, but what isn’t is the figures that show tourism was booming in Yorkshire in 2009.
Research from the United Kingdom Tourism Survey, released last month, showed that Yorkshire was the fastest growing region in the country for attracting UK visitors, up a staggering 31% during the summer of 2009. This, incidentally, compared to London which saw a drop in visitors of -9%.
The Yorkshire and Humber region’s bumper summer 2009 continued into the winter, with businesses reporting in early December that they were experiencing increased bed bookings compared to the same period in 2008.
At the same time, one in five hotels and guesthouses in the region were fully booked for Christmas and around a quarter were booked up over New Year.
The research proves that Yorkshire is a top holidaying destination and can compete successfully against other regions around the UK. In these tough economic times it’s fantastic that the tourism industry in Britain, especially the Yorkshire region is doing so well.
With British Tourism Week starting next week (March 15-21) the importance of tourism to the economy will be highlighted nationwide – it is worth £6.5 billion to Yorkshire alone.
The trend of staycationing will have had a big impact on many regions, not just Yorkshire.
The proof though, will be whether those bookings continue this year and beyond, especially if the economy and the value of the pound start to recover.
We will be discussing these issues and our plans to make sure Yorkshire continues to attract visitors regardless of the state of the economy at our annual conference Y 10, on March 22.
To register and hear our exciting plans visit www.welcometoyorkshire.net/Y10/join-us.aspx <http://www.welcometoyorkshire.net/Y10/join-us.aspx>
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