A weak pound means there will be a large increase in the number of foreign holiday makers arriving on our shores and sensibly heading for Yorkshire. A strong pound means visitor to Yorkshire will not be put off by uncontrolled events.
More stay at home holiday makers means our Yorkshire tourist spots will also be doing good and well deserved trade.
Even ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’ are doing their bit promoting the region and our counties heritage.
Long may this tourist bonanza help our balance of payments.
All good news and I do not want to carp on but here goes:
Improve the Tourists Experience
- Our streets and beauty spots are often despoiled by litter and dirt. It is partially our slovenly habits and partially our poor management of street cleaning. Time for proper action!
- Immigration at our ports and airports seems slower and more complex than at other European destinations. I do not want to encourage illegal immigration, far from it, but are our checks and resources fit for purpose?
- Railway staff particularly around Europe where I recently enjoyed a 3 week rover ticket were brilliant. When I got home to my local station the surly, uncommunicative staff were not a joy to behold, in fact they are a local joke!
- What do you remember about your foreign holidays. For me it is often the interaction with the locals. Why not reciprocate and talk to a few tourists if the opportunity arises.
Tourist Black Spot – Bradford
- Bradford has tried to brand itself as a tourist attraction with Saltaire, Howorth and the National Media Museum as key features. Well it fails miserably, the National Media museum over looks the iconic building of the Alhambra and the diabolical state of the Gaumont/Odeon that has been left for decades to deliberately decay!
- The former Colour museum now the Colour Experience is only open to pre-booked groups. The nearby buildings are 75% boarded up and a young family who had parked their car on Chain Street were surveying the smashed in windows when I walked past on 28 July 2011.
- Vincent Street and Roundhill Place once proud areas of mills and industrial revolution
were littered to glory and weeds grew out of roof tops like tumbleweed in the Wild West. - Less said about Forster Square and City Hall bomb site the better.
Summary
Yorkshire is a great place for a holiday and is good for our local and national economy. (Then of course we all knew that but it is just dawning on Johnny foreigner).
Yorkshire was renown for its coal pits but now it is Bradford that is the Pits. Go and see for yourself as they need all the help they can get.
Keep Yorkshire Tidy, take litter home, put litter in the bins and encourage your council to keep on top of ugly, dirty litter strewn sites.