Sheffield Hallam University reveals Yorkshire economy is 'booming' - but how?

According to new research from Sheffield Hallam University, the value of tourism to the Yorkshire economy has grown to £9bn per year.

A report produced by Sheffield Business School has revealed that in 12 months - from 2016 to 2017 - the income from tourism in Yorkshire grew by £1bn.

The figures were revealed at Welcome to Yorkshire’s annual conference Y19 in Leeds, held to mark the organisation’s 10th anniversary.

Dr Emma Martin, head of the department of service sector management at Sheffield Business School, spoke of the impact: “Our study found that tourism is certainly booming in Yorkshire and in total £7.3bn was spent by visitors to the county with an extra £1.7bn going into the supply chain.

“Day trips were up with visits to Yorkshire’s attractions increasing by seven per cent, something which can be attributed in part to the events and attractions in Hull during its 2017 tenure as UK City of Culture.”

The report found 8.5 per cent of all jobs in Yorkshire (224,000) were tourism related; £1.74bn was spent by overnight domestic visitors to the county and the overall spend by day visitors was £5.02bn. International visitors spent £567m - up 10 per cent.

In 2017, 149 million people paid day trips to Yorkshire, spending an average of £34 per trip - putting £5.02bn into the local economy.

The largest proportion of international visitors was from the US - up 27 per cent on previous figures, with spending from this market up 44 per cent.

Peter Dodd, commercial director at Welcome to Yorkshire, added: “To have the tourism industry grow by £1bn in 12 months is fantastic news and everyone in the county should be incredibly proud of all the hard work that is being done to continue to raise Yorkshire’s profile.

“Brand Yorkshire has never been stronger and together with our members, partners and the tourism industry, we look forward to building on that success even more.”

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