Visit York - Marketing York to the World

Marketing York to the World

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“What 2016 has proved is that marketing activity does influence behaviour and change perceptions. It therefore remains really important that York is promoted consistently and ambitiously across the world. It is through the collective responsibility, input and collaboration of Visit York members that we are able to do this.�

Steve Brown, Managing Director, Make It York

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Steve Brown, Managing Director, Make It York 2016 was a memorable year for anyone connected with tourism in York. It began in the worst possible way with the Boxing Day flooding and images of York as a ‘no go’ area flashing around the world. First quarter tourism statistics were consequently very disappointing and well down on the previous year.

Turning things around required some extraordinary action and the Visit York team facilitated an additional funding pot of £350,000. Out of this came the “York The Original City Adventure” campaign with advertising, PR and social media activity combining to shout loud and clear that the city was not just open for business but that it was a spectacular year to come and visit. The return of the Flying Scotsman to the National Railway Museum, the York Mystery Plays at the Minster and the re-opening of York Theatre Royal all added to a very rich narrative for the city.

The marketing activity worked. By summer things were returning to normal and by quarter 4 many tourism

businesses were reporting above normal figures.

The most telling and positive statistic is that hotel occupancy in York for the full year will be ahead of 2015, despite that challenging first quarter.

on tourism businesses and so it is important that we show how your money is spent and establish the link between the work that we do and the impact it has on your business.

What 2016 has proved is that marketing activity does influence behaviour and changes perceptions and it therefore remains really important that York is promoted consistently and ambitiously across the world. This is further justified by the rapidly growing competition for the visitor pound. The rise in the popularity of city breaks is both an opportunity and a threat, with other UK and international destinations all battling for the same market. Our job is to make sure visitors continue to choose York. There is absolutely no room for complacency.

Visit York membership revenue is critical for the effective promotion of the city and its surroundings.

Every pound generated translates into £6 being spent on the marketing of York.

Visit York, now part of Make It York, is only as strong as its membership. Our ability to market the city to both leisure and business visitors depends upon a strong membership base. To sustain that, we will work harder with you to offer good value for money and to support your business in the best way that we can. Thank you for your support.

The purpose of this brochure then is to illustrate the breadth and scale of activity that took place in 2016 to promote the city and to demonstrate the value of Visit York membership. We recognise the financial pressures

Sally Greenaway, Head of Visit York Tourism is one of York’s great success stories and I’m delighted to be joining Make It York, heading up the Visit York brand, to ensure this legacy goes from strength to strength.

My areas of expertise are in customer relationship management, loyalty marketing and insights gained from working at the country’s most successful rail operator, Virgin Trains, where I was Loyalty Marketing Manager. Prior to this, I worked for Best Western Hotels for 9 years, managing their direct mail, partnerships and loyalty strategy.

My first priority will be to meet as many members as possible so that I can quickly get a sense of the key issues for the tourism strategy moving forward. Already on the agenda at Visit York this year is an upgrade and refreshing of all the digital platforms, a vitally important part of the city’s marketing activity.

I am really looking forward to working with all our business members and partners. York is a fantastic city and I am confident that, working in a collaborative way, we can continue to grow the value of the visitor economy.

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Visit York...

Attracting visitors to York

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Over 300,000 viewers tuned in to watch our video York - the Original City Adventure Visit York has a marketing team of six, dedicated to promoting the city and its surroundings nationally and internationally, through campaigns, publications and digital marketing.

2016 Highlights > 570,000 copies of a York supplement were inserted in the Sunday Times > York was profiled at key railway stations across London > New bespoke campaign pages went live at visityork.org/adventure > A new partnership with Classic FM, co-funded by York Minster and University of York, generated national coverage for the city > Digital display adverts generated 4.2 million impressions > 146,780 unique page views were generated at visityork.org/adventure > 1341 rail bookings were secured for Virgin Trains during their 3 week offer > Facebook advertising generated 1.1 million impressions

Following the Boxing Day flooding, Visit York quickly assembled a £350,000 fund to market the city assertively and to turn around the negative perceptions built up by national media coverage.

A multi-media campaign used “York – The Original City Adventure” as its theme and gained considerable traction both nationally and internationally.

The campaign ran from February and by the summer visitor numbers had returned to normal. The fourth quarter of 2016 was particularly strong for tourism – a difficult start to the year had been turned around.

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Visit York...

Attracting visitors to York

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visityork.org generates 1.8 million user sessions Visit York has a team dedicated to digital marketing and managing visityork.org, as well as promoting York and North Yorkshire through equally important social media channels.

2016 Highlights > visityork.org generated 1.4 million unique visits - 14% overseas > Mobile traffic increased by 194% > The site was enriched with feature pages promoting attractions, shops, hotels and city-wide festivals and events > Christmas web content generated 47,000 unique page views in one month alone > Content written by travel writers and journalists was added > A new mobile app for students, ‘100 things to do in York’, was launched > A record 469 coaches booked online for the York Christmas Festival > 12,000 people subscribed to the weekly online ‘7 Days in York’ newsletter > Businesses can now sell tickets for events and festivals through Web Ticket Manager

New affiliate programme with Superbreak York rail breaks are now being promoted with leading short break provider, Superbreak York content is now distributed wider than ever through social media:

> 16,000 Facebook > 40,000 Twitter > 3,500 Instagram

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Visit York...

Attracting visitors to York

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York is showcased at UK and international travel trade shows and events Throughout the year we attend a host of UK and international travel trade shows, promoting York directly to tour operators, consumers and the media, ensuring the city is added to itineraries and programmes for the following year. We’re focussing on core overseas markets: Germany, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and China.

2016 Highlights > Member of England’s Heritage Cities (EHC) > Member of UKinbound > Member of ETOA (European Tour Operators Association)

VisitBritain China Welcome Charter

> York represented at VIBE - the VisitBritain showcase event in London

We’re a member of VisitBritain’s Great China Welcome charter and in 2016 we published our third Visitor Guide in Mandarin, distributing it on incoming airline routes, at airport lounges and to key incoming tour operators.

> Year round media activity including representation at ‘Meet the Media’ overseas events > Travel trade familiarisation visits, including hosting visits from the USA, China, The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany > Partnership working with carriers such as P&O Ferries, Jet2.com, Aer Lingus and regional airports > Attendance at the VisitBritain Chinese and Australian Sales Missions, meeting with key tour operators in Sydney and Melbourne > Attended Vakantiebeurs in Utrecht and ITB Berlin - consumer and trade shows > Foreign language translations - Mandarin and German print

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100,000 copies of the York Visitor Guide are distributed across the UK The 102 page annual Visitor Guide published in January is a brilliant showcase for the tourism sector in York. Distributed all around the UK, its aim is to inspire visitors to book their next holiday in York.

“York is a crucial part of England’s tourism product.

The industry is currently worth £126.9 billion to Britain’s economy and is our seventh largest export.

York is a must-see for thousands of international visitors each year and we’re committed to working with you to promote this beautiful and historic city both at home and abroad.”

Sally Balcombe, Chief Executive, VisitBritain

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Visit York...

Attracting visitors to York

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Visit York...

Attracting visitors to York

Crea Traveller Japan

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We reach millions of potential visitors through year round PR campaigns Our communications team creates stand-out content for York in local, regional, national and international print, broadcast and online media outlets.

Coverage is maximised by offering a fast, responsive service to all media enquires and opportunities.

2016 Highlights >

Over a hundred travel journalists hosted in York and North Yorkshire

> 12 Travel Bloggers ran features reaching thousands of readers >

Dedicated York media kit

> New online content featured on TravMedia - the world’s largest community of online travel writers > Dedicated PR campaign for illuminating York > New partnership with Penguin Books > Media reviews added to visityork.org > Image library updated - visityorkimages.co.uk Targeting Travel Bloggers Our Travel Blogger outreach work began by attending TBEX Stockholm, the biggest gathering of international Travel Bloggers. We then planned a programme of blogger campaign work, which has reached thousands of readers online and we’ll continue this activity throughout 2017.

Media featuring York - A few highlights > BBC 6 Music live Broadcast at Christmas > CCTV China, China’s only national channel > NHK Japan, equivalent to BBC 2 > Olive Magazine > Shanghai Morning Post > BRITAIN Magazine > Daily Telegraph > Lusher Takako, Japan’s No 2 travel blogger > The Times Travel Supplement > Australian House and Garden Magazine > Woman Magazine > American Statesman > OK Magazine - UAE > Conde Nast China > Yahoo Travel > Scottish Sun

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Visit York...

Attracting visitors to York

#yor k i e e r u t n e v d #yor k a

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We develop innovative ways of promoting York in our PR campaigns In 2016, we introduced ‘Yorkie’, a world-first travelogue dog, who took viewers with him on a series of canine adventures around York and North Yorkshire.

2016 Highlights > Over 35,000 views of the three Yorkie videos > 14,000 views in China > 49% increase in social media engagement > BBC Radio York Facebook page reached over 8,000 views > Yorkie featured on page 3 of the i, in The Sunday Times and online in The Daily Express, The Telegraph and The Mirror > The BBC Travel Show introduced viewers to Yorkie > Escapism covered the travelogue series; the UK’s biggest independent travel magazine > Lonely Planet’s website, the largest travel book publisher in the world, ran the story, as well as the German Lonely Planet magazine > 85 pieces across national and regional media > Finalist: Best PR Tactical Campaign, The Travel Marketing Awards 2017

“This is an amazing story! Just so you know, Yorkie has now made it into the BBC Travel Show” Rich Matthews, Researcher, The Travel Show

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York starred in both film and TV Working closely with Screen Yorkshire and Creative England, we help filmmakers with productions based in and around York. We’re committed to being a Film Friendly destination and by working with partners, York is now reaping the benefits of this. Top TV dramas Victoria and Dark Angel were both filmed in York.

Filming Highlights in 2016... > Taste of Travel by Australia’s network TEN - Supported by VisitBritain, we worked with the crew for a new series called ‘Taste of Travel’. Viewing figures were in the region of 300,000 per episode. > ‘Somewhere Street’ by NHK (Japan’s equivalent to the BBC) This one hour episode of the popular long-running weekly series broadcast York to an audience of millions. > Channel 2 China - China’s only state TV channel filmed from the York St Nicholas Fair, which has been broadcast to millions. > BBC 6 Music - The popular Radcliffe and Maconie show brought a live broadcast from Thor’s Tipi, aired to millions of potential visitors to York. > BBC 2 drama, Dark Angel – York and Yorkshire took centre stage in this true story of the Victorian poisoner Mary Ann Cotton.

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Visit York...

Attracting visitors to York

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“I would definitely use VisitYork4Meetings again. The staff are incredibly helpful and courteous - nothing was ever too much!

And they are very enthusiastic about York and all that it has to offer.�

Sue Pearson, MWH Global

Visit York...

Attracting business visitors to York

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869,000 conference and meeting delegates spend £137million in York We have a team of three staff dedicated to increasing revenue into the city’s conference and events venues and profiling York and its surroundings as a world class destination.

2016 Highlights > Enquires to VisitYork4Meetings up by 11% year on year > York’s third time as host to the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference - 1,400 delegates > York hosted the prestigious European Workshop for Rheumatology Research > VisitYork4Meetings and partners attended The Meetings Show at London Olympia, generating 163 new leads > 24 new leads and 3 enquiries were generated from the Association Congress, including a four day residential conference for 200 delegates > Working with VisitBritain we launched Incentive England to promote English destinations in the high value incentive market. Visit York members are invited to join this lucrative programme, allowing York to create a new bespoke package of incentive product > An innovative new film was launched with VisitBritain, showcasing the city as a destination for business visitors > VisitYork4Meetings Twitter channel @VisitYork_4M was launched

Conference and event visitors continue to contribute significantly above average spend to the visitor economy, accounting for 24% of the total visitor spend despite representing only 13% of the number of visitors to York per year. Total conference and event spend equalled £137m (or £158 per business visitor) and total leisure visitor spend equalled £427m (or £70 per leisure visitor).

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“It was my pleasure to meet your team in the Visitor Centre.

You have the friendliest tourism people I have ever met. I loved my visit to York and will be back soon.�

York Visitor from Scotland

Visit York...

Enhancing the visitor experience

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Every year we help up to half a million visitors at the Visitor Centre Nine tourism staff and 30 volunteers are on hand seven days a week to help York’s visitors and residents. Our expert team speaks fluent Spanish, German, Italian, Catalan, French, Portuguese, Hungarian and Mandarin.

2016 Highlights > New information point at York railway station > New greeter service in Parliament street and around the city, in association with York BID > New information point at York St Nicholas Fair > December footfall was at a record high with 5,000 people visiting over two days of the popular Ice Trail weekend > New online ticketing system introduced, Web Ticket Manager > New currency exchange introduced

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1 million York Mini Guides assisted visitors in 2016 We take great pride in the quality of York’s tourism publications, creating a wide range of brochures to ensure visitors get the best experience whilst they are here.

We produce and distribute 12 different brochures and guides with a total print run of 1.3 million >

Visitor Guide

>

Conference Guide

>

Easter Festival Leaflet

>

York100Challenge (Student Bucket-list)

>

Mini Guide

>

illuminating York Leaflet

>

Wedding Guide

>

Taste Leaflet

>

Christmas Guide

>

York Shopping Map

>

St Nicholas Fair Map

>

Ice Trail

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Visit York...

Enhancing the visitor experience

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Visit York...

Enhancing the visitor experience

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60,705 attraction visits generated by York Pass

10,000 visitors bought a York Pass in 2016 York Pass is the city’s official sightseeing card which, once purchased, offers visitors

34 participating attractions

free entry to over thirty attractions, as well as a range of discounts and special offers at shops and restaurants.

It offers excellent value for money and other than London, is the only sightseeing pass in England. It’s also a useful marketing tool, particularly for

5.61 attraction visits per York Pass

international tour operators. In 2016 we welcomed back York Museums Trust and their three iconic attractions, as well as York City Sightseeing.

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Thousands of visitors follow the Visit York trails We’re always looking for new ways to entertain visitors whilst they are here. A range of new walking trails has been designed to encourage visitors to explore more of York.

> > >

> >

Selfie Trail We launched the top 10 best places to take a selfie in York with a trail leaflet, supported by social media using the hashtag #yorkselfie Ice Trail Thousands of people followed the Ice Trail during this popular weekend, supported by 35 businesses across York Living Advent Calendar Adding to York’s Christmas Festival this year, we launched the very first Living Advent Calendar, encouraging footfall to lesser known streets and businesses across the city Bunny Trail As part of illuminating York, the Bunny Trail was enjoyed by families and also raised money for local charities, St Leonard’s Hospice and SNAPPY Other Trails A trail for art lovers, a York Food and Drink trail and even a tree trail are adding to the list of experiences visitors can enjoy

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Visit York...

Enhancing the visitor experience

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“We applaud York’s Festival organisers who do what they do so brilliantly. The year round festival programme and quality of events makes a massive contribution to York’s international appeal.”

Jane Lady Gibson, Chair, Make It York

Visit York...

Enhancing the visitor experience

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11 festivals attract over 2 million people to York A full programme of events and festivals encourages visitors to come to the city and region and also enriches their experience. From the nationally acclaimed Early Music Festival to the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, the quality and diversity of the programme is world-class. The Make It York city centre and events team also works year round to support organisers, as well as developing new events.

Festival Highlights > JORVIK Viking Festival is celebrated as the best in Europe and celebrates York’s Norse heritage

> Eboracum Roman Festival is back - the ‘armies of ancient Rome’ are marching once again on York!

> York Food and Drink Festival offers visitors the chance to explore the city through taste

> York Literature Festival is gaining momentum, attracting big names and a loyal following

> York Festival of Ideas, led by the University of York, offers an incredible range of talks and events

> illuminating York transforms the city through light

> York Open Studios now runs over two weekends and is a celebration of creative talent

> York Early Music Festival is putting on sell-out performances and celebrates 40 years in 2017

> Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) celebrates the very best of international short film

> Fashion City York promotes fashion retailing and all the facets of York’s fashion industry

> The Great Yorkshire Fringe is back again and is making us all laugh out loud

> York Christmas Festival is one of the most popular events of the year, now bigger and better

> York Racecourse hosts the Ebor Festival, one of the best racing events in the world

> York National Book Fair now attracts over 220 of the country’s leading sellers

> York Early Music Christmas Festival showcases beautiful music from different parts of the world

York Residents Festival sponsored by First York and the York BID Every year we organise the annual Residents Festival in January - a chance for local residents to enjoy the tourist attractions of York free of charge.

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Visit York...

Supporting the tourism sector

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The Tourism Awards celebrate success and encourage excellence Each year we organise the Visit York Tourism awards, to celebrate the achievements of York’s Tourism sector. In May 2016 the iconic Flying Scotsman scooped the prestigious Visit York Tourism Ambassador title.

Congratulations to the 2016 Winners Café/Tearoom of the Year El Piano Sponsored by Booker York

Bed & Breakfast of the Year The Bloomsbury Sponsored by Little Hotelier

Caravan Park or Holiday Village of the Year Robin Hood Caravan Park Sponsored by Lloyds Bank

Conference Venue of the Year The Principal York Sponsored by Saville Audio Visual

Outstanding Customer Service Award Stevie-Jo Todd, York Marriott Hotel Sponsored by HIT Training

Restaurant of the Year The Whippet Inn Sponsored by Morrell Middleton Accountants

Family Friendly Experience of the Year York Maze Sponsored by P&O Ferries

Pub/Bar of the Year Walmgate Ale House Sponsored by Webmart

Hotel of the Year The Principal York Sponsored by Streamline Taxis

Shopping Experience of the Year Il Gusto Sponsored by Fulprint

Self-Catering Venue of the Year Lendal Tower Sponsored by Be Independent

Visitor Attraction of the Year (Over 50,000 Visitors) York Art Gallery Sponsored by F.R. Fowler & Son

Visitor Attraction of the Year (Under 50,000 Visitors) Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens Sponsored by York North Yorkshire East Riding Enterprise Partnership Visitor Experience of the Year HallowScream at York Maze Sponsored by York Data Services York Tourism Ambassador Flying Scotsman Sponsored by Veeno, The Italian Wine Café

“We were delighted with Flying Scotsman’s accolade. The spectacular sight of this most famous of steam locomotives has captured the imagination of millions of people. This globetrotting star and multiple record-breaker will continue its work as a great ambassador for both York and the museum.”

Paul Kirkman, Director, National Railway Museum

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Make the most of your membership We have a team dedicated to making sure you benefit from your membership with Visit York. In 2016 we welcomed over 145 new members, taking the total to over 800.

A few tips from our team: Use the Visitor Centre Whether you’re keen to rack your brochures, sell your tickets or update the Visitor Centre team on your news, make sure your business takes advantage of this key member benefit.

Get noticed by the media Whether you’re keen to be part of a campaign, reach more customers through PR, offer a film location or host visiting travel writers.

Send us your news.

Tell VisitYork4meetings your product news Make sure we know all about your conference and event venue and keep us up to date on your product news. We can include your business online, or in the Conference Brochure for York.

Get involved in our marketing campaigns Get in touch with us to be part of our marketing, print, or digital campaigns. Tap into our expertise in areas of digital marketing and research.

Take advantage of all of your business benefits Use the free mystery shopping services, free recruitment advertising, free legal helpline and free maintenance portal.

Follow @visityork and @visityorkbiz Reach thousands of additional customers by following @visityork and @visityorkbiz for the latest industry news.

Use your perks cards and York Passes Get to know the city better and experience what the visitors are experiencing.

Plan the events you want to attend Attend our regular member events, training sessions and networking events.

Visityork.org Keep your online listing up to date on visityork.org, by adding new photos, videos, events and content.

Book a ticket for the annual Tourism Conference It’s a great way to hear the latest news and to share knowledge and skills from across the industry.

Business advice from York Means Business Benefit from a host of free training events and expert business advice, through our business team.

Enter the Visit York Tourism Awards Submit your entry for the Visit York Tourism Awards in February and you could be in with a chance of winning a prestigious title and also raise your profile.

“The website, social media, publications and being able to display leaflets at the Visitor Centre all help us. Networking events are a great way to keep up to date on all that’s happening in York, as well as promote our business.”

Mark Stredwick, Brewtown Tours

Advice, support, networking and free training events, ensuring you

Good Reasons

are always fully up to date

1.1 million copies of the Visit York Visitor Guide and Mini

to work with Visit York

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Guide distributed globally, offering a Access to and support from

great profile for your

VisitYork4meetings, Make It York’s

business

business tourism experts

Work with an expert Get promoted to half a million visitors through

tourism team and benefit from award-winning marketing, social

Keen to discuss membership? pj.edgar@makeityork.com

media and PR campaigns

the Visit York Information Centre, a great shop window for your business

Expert knowledge, advice and monthly newsletter at visityork.org/members

Exposure to 1.4 million unique users of visityork.org, ranked number 1 on Google for York searches

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“We attend the social and networking events as they have been beneficial to us in many ways. You do an amazing job of marketing York. Thank you to all the team and keep up the good work.�

Fiona Gabbiadini, Owner, The Limes Guesthouse

Visit York...

Supporting the tourism sector

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Networking, intelligence and business support Visit York members benefit from regular networking and training events, have access to tourism trends and market intelligence and can take advantage of free business support.

Support includes > Monthly member events to enable networking and relationship building > An annual full day tourism conference > A monthly eNewsletter highlighting marketing opportunities and York’s tourism news - sign-up at visityork.org/members > 7 advisory boards to encourage member engagement and to help shape the city’s tourism strategy and agenda > Active social media channels through @visityorkbiz and @makeityork > A monthly tourism report that monitors key trends on hotel occupancy and rates and audience figures for visitor attractions > The input of the Make It York business team who can offer free advice and support on access to finance, skills development and training and other business issues > Free seminars and master-classes on bespoke business topics

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Deals, discounts and money saving opportunities Visit York members benefit from a range of exclusive deals.

Benefits include > Over 100 exclusive member perks > A new maintenance portal offers access to local tradespeople through York Property Services > Discounts on mystery shopping are offered by Shopper Anonymous > Free legal helpline with Ware and Kay solicitors > Perks card offers discounts at participating businesses > Access to free online image library > Free recruitment advertising at jobsinyork.com > 2 free York Passes > Member plaque and sticker/logo to display at your business and online

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Visit York...

Making the most of your membership

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The Economic Impact of Tourism in York Our research, as well as market intelligence from VisitEngland and VisitBritain, enables us to build up an accurate picture of customer satisfaction, as well as indicating the health of the tourism economy. We run three pieces of research : the Economic Impact Model, the Visitor Survey and the monitor of visits to attractions and hotel occupancy levels.

The latest figures from the economic impact report are for 2015, a year in which there were were 6.9 million visitors to York, who spent £564 million, which supported 19,000 jobs.

2016 in Numbers 12,000 people took part in York Residents’ Festival 66,000 visits to illuminating York (19,000 visitors) 1 million mini guides produced 469 coaches at York Christmas Festival

The report also shows: >

Day visits (leisure) – up by 111,000, or 2%

> Overnight visits - up by 114,000 or 8% (across both leisure and business) > Average length of stay - 2.1 days (for leisure visits) > Day visitor spend per person - up by 11% to £49.98 > Overnight business visitors – spend up by £10 million to £100 million > 99% of visitors would recommend York to friends and family

500 conference enquiries 90% increase in traffic to mobile website 820 members 405,000 visitors welcomed to the Visitor Centre

2016 - some key figures

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Full year 2016 v 2015

Hotel occupancy

Q1

Q2

Q3

+4%

+12%

+10%

+5%

+8%

2016 v 2015

+4%

+7%

+7%

Quarter 1

Quarter 2

Quarter 3

Quarter 4

-4%

£350,000 Marketing Campaign

Q4

Average hotel room rate 2016 v 2015

Visit to attractions

Full year 2016 v 2015

2016 v 2015

0%

Change

For every £1 of Visit York Membership

+1% Quarter 1

Quarter 2

+10% Quarter 3

–3%

-6% £6 is spent on marketing

Quarter 4

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Spotlight on 2017 “We’re delighted to be part of York’s plans in embracing new technology to help visitors explore our 2,000 year old city using the very latest 21st century know-how.”

Sharon Atkinson, Head of Communications, York Minster York - the Original City Adventure The main marketing theme will continue into 2017, with a key focus on digital marketing activity.

Discover England Fund Working with twelve heritage cities, we have secured funding for marketing activity which will create a new augmented reality app for York, including video and web elements. The aim is to target a younger USA audience, aged 18-25, using new technologies. The app, featuring York Minster and key attractions across the cities, will go live during English Tourism Week in March.

York - Britain’s Home of Chocolate We’ll continue to promote York as ‘Britain’s Home of Chocolate’, working on marketing and communications to spread the word far and wide about Britain’s chocolate heritage and the 250th anniversary of Terry’s.

2017 will see… > A bi-annual publication of the York Pass leaflet, enabling us to give the visitor seasonal itineraries > A new York Pass gift voucher will be introduced > We will be trialling a two-day York Pass for use over four days from April > A full re-development of visityork.org and enhancement across all digital marketing platforms > We’re introducing a new series of digital marketing workshops with our expert David Honan, starting with Google Analytics

International marketing campaign, including: > Attendance at the New York Times Travel Show (Jan 2017), where we’ll lead with a Victorian theme, coinciding with the broadcast of the Victoria series on PBS > Mandarin and German landing pages introduced on visityork.org > New German video > New China campaign with Marketing Manchester > New partnership with House of Britain in the Netherlands, including e-Newsletters, presence on houseofbritain.com and presence at Vakantiebeurs > Discover England, augmented reality app launch China Calling In 2017 we will be working in partnership with Marketing Manchester to promote the new direct route with Hainan Airlines, from Beijing into Manchester International Airport. Key activity in this £450,000 campaign: > York featured in Gateway Guide to the North of England > York featured in Marketing Manchester’s Weibo and WeChat pages > York included in Hainan Airlines Travel Trade familiarisation trips

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Hull, UK City of Culture We’re supportive of our Yorkshire neighbour Hull, taking up the mantle of Hull, UK City of Culture in 2017.

York is set to benefit from this, with many additional visitors heading to Yorkshire. Key collaboration includes joint marketing through the Visitor Guide, PR and online content.

250 Anniversary of Terry’s Partners across the city; York Museums Trust, Goddard’s, York Cocoa House and York’s Chocolate Story, will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of Terry’s in York.

Year of Literary Heroes 2017 will be VisitEngland’s Year of Literary Heroes; a great opportunity for York Literature Festival. #ReturnoftheVikings JORVIK will re-open on 8 April 2017, marking the start of a year-long campaign to celebrate the #returnofthevikings. Two of the most significant collections of Viking Age Treasure in Britain will also be brought together for the first time in a major new exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum; Viking: Rediscover the Legend.

New investment: > A new era for the Grand Hotel York with its £15 million re-development plans > A complete refurbishment of the Mansion House, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund; re-opens in the summer > Yorkshire Ventures has revealed plans to turn Aviva’s former offices in York into a Malmaison hotel > Travelodge is planning to open its fourth hotel in York (Layerthorpe) by the end of 2017 > Return of Farmers’ Market to St Sampson’s Square

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Key Contacts Sally Greenaway

Michelle Brown

Head of Visit York sally.greenaway@makeityork.com

Marketing Manager michelle.brown@makeityork.com

Kay Hyde

Rebecca Francis

Head of PR & Corporate Communications kay.hyde@makeityork.com

Commerical Manager rebecca.francis@makeityork.com

Andrew Sharp

Laura Freer

Head of Business business@makeityork.com

Business Tourism Manager laura.freer@makeityork.com

Suzy Johnson

Chris Price

Visitor Centre Manager vicmanager@visityork.org

City Centre Manager chris.price@makeityork.com

1 Museum Street, York, YO1 7DT 01904 554455 visityork.org | makeityork.com Follow us on Twitter @visityorkbiz | @makeityork Subscribe to our newsletters at visityork.org