Businesses urged to attend major tourism conference

Martin Green.

HOW Hull and East Yorkshire businesses can tap into the benefits of Hull 2017 and beyond is one of the key messages being delivered at a major tourism conference and networking event being held next month.

Organised by Visit Hull and East Yorkshire (VHEY), the free event at the Mercure Grange Park Hotel, Willerby, on Thursday November 3, will be addressed by national and local tourism experts and is expected to attract more than 400 delegates.

Keynote speakers will be BBC Travel Show presenter Simon Calder, who is also senior travel editor of The Independent, Martin Green, CEO and director of Hull UK City of Culture 2017, and Prof John Lennon, of Glasgow Caledonian University, who completed the original strategy and development studies which led to the setting up of VHEY ten years ago.

In those ten years, the value of tourism to the local economy has risen by £182 million to £797 per year and is now responsible for 17,422 jobs and supporting an estimated 1,800 private and public sector businesses.

VHEY is all about leading and co-ordinating a range of activities with a strong focus on improving the visitor experience and increasing visitor spend,” said tourism manager Andy Gray. “Our target is to generate an additional two million visitors by 2017-18 and increase employment by 3,500 jobs.”

Organised as an annual event, Mr Gray said next month’s conference was aimed at individuals and businesses large and small working within the tourism economy. “We want people to come and find out what VHEY does, how they can become more engaged with us and how we can help them.”

More than 100 people have already signed up to attend and with space limited, he urged anyone interested to register as soon as possible before the ticket deadline on 12 noon on Thursday October 27.

The event, from 9.30am - 12.30pm, is followed by a networking lunch, and is free to attend. The link to register is here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vhey-2016-tourism-conference-tickets-28223142178

Organisations which will have trade stands at the event include the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the conference will also see the launch of the 2017 Remarkable East Yorkshire Tourism Awards, the REYTAs, which will include a number of new categories.