Major cash boost could be on way for hard-up regional tourism body

National tourism body Visit England has revealed it is in negotiations with Whitehall officials to secure a second tranche of funding from the regional growth fund (RGF), after winning almost £20m from the fund last year.

That money was handed to a series of local tourism bodies around the country, with Visit York and Marketing Leeds securing £500,000 each. But there was concern about the lack of support for other parts of England, with region-wide Welcome to Yorkshire having been stripped of almost all its Government funding.

With the tourism industry worth an estimated £7bn a year to the region, the Yorkshire Post has been calling for more public funds for Welcome to Yorkshire as part of its Give us a Fair Deal campaign.

In an exclusive interview, Visit England chief executive James Berresford said his second RGF bid – if successful – will back a campaign encouraging international visitors to tour specific regions of England, with Yorkshire high on the list.

“We are planning – or hoping – to go for Regional Growth Fund Two, and to base this work more around ‘touring’ areas,” he said. “Yorkshire would be an ideal touring area. And there are other parts of the country that lend themselves to that (as well).”

Mr Berresford stressed the bid is at an early stage and “not nailed-on at all”, but confirmed Welcome to Yorkshire would deliver the campaign locally if successful.

“In the first round it was all about working with individual destinations,” he said. “The domestic market was the first priority for the RGF... and it was about areas of deprivation too. That didn’t work regionally.

“Now we’ve hopefully got the confidence of (Government officials) that we can deliver a programme such as this, we think we can make the case for a touring region (publicity campaign).”