Confused about who does what in tourism? You are not alone! Here's a quick guide.
Visit Britain/Visit England together, are jointly the national tourism agency.
The priorities for each differ in that Visit England maintains distinct activities to develop and market English tourism and Visit Britain markets Britain overseas to drive growth in international leisure and business tourism.
These organisations (VisitBritain and VisitEngland) are not membership organisations and mainly work directly with destination management organisations. For this area these are
- Visit Lancashire, PR26 6TW www.visitlancashire.com
- Cumbria Tourism, Cumbria LA8 9PL www.cumbriatourism.org
- Visit Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG1 2RR www.visitharrogate.co.uk
- Welcome To Yorkshire, LS11 5DL https://industry.yorkshire.com/
Welcome to Yorkshire is the official agency for Yorkshire, promoting Yorkshire within Yorkshire, nationally and internationally, aiming to make it the most popular destination in the UK for business and leisure. It promotes the unique and distinctive offer of the Dales within the destination areas of yorkshire.com as well as running high profile marketing campaigns for Yorkshire. Tourism businesses are able to become paid members, entitling them to a range of benefits such as entry on Yorkshire.com, membership-only events and discounts.
Added to the list above, are other organisations that represent particular areas within the Yorkshire Dales and aim to protect and enhance the visitor experience so their focus is mainly on the destination itself.
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Much of the work of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is linked to tourism and visitor management. The Authority provides car parks, toilets, runs five National Park Centres and maintains the rights of way network in the National Park. The National Park’s tourism programme includes: co-ordination of the Destination Dales Group, monitoring of tourism data, working with individual businesses, and the provision of information for visitors to enable to plan their trip.
For an organisation chart showing the job titles of roles in the " YDNPA Visitor Services team" please click here.
Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
The team from Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty works in partnership to conserve and enhance the landscape. It supports tourism through promoting the area through its website, annual brochure and programme of guided walks and events, as well as through attendance at shows.
The Destination Dales Group is an advisory group made up of (voluntary) members of the business community and representatives from the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Nidderdale AONB. The group has been set up to help guide the development of tourism within the Yorkshire Dales.
Tourism businesses are supported through the relevant economic development roles of the District Councils. For information such as sources of training, business advice and grants for new and existing businesses contact the District Council for your area.
The District Councils covering the area of the National Park include, Craven District Council in the south, Richmondshire District Council in the north and Eden District Council, Lancaster City Counciland South Lakeland District Council in the Cumbrian area of the Park.
The Dales Tourism Business Network is operated on a voluntary basis by Susan Briggs from the Tourism Network Ltd. Over 400 tourism business have joined the network including accommodation, attractions, food and drink, shops, arts and crafts businesses. The Network runs marketing workshops and offers practical support for local businesses. It is a free informal business to business network offering opportunities to share ideas and all tourism businesses in the Yorkshire Dales are welcome to join.
