THIS is the “tourism taskforce” that will lead efforts to support businesses in the Yorkshire Dales and Harrogate area.

L-R: John Jagger (Executive Chair, YDHTP), Angela Harris (BDO), Sheila
Mcfee (BDO), Sarah Howsen (YDHTP Partnership Coordinator), Jo
Skinner (BDO), Nicola Burton (Head of Economic Development and
Tourism, Richmondshire District Council), Nick White (BDO).

The region’s tourism partnership has appointed four business development officers (BDOs) to offer practical help and advice to tourism operators.

The Yorkshire Dales and Harrogate Tourism Partnership (YDHTP) has launched the scheme in response to the national economic downturn. The four-strong taskforce will add to the partnership’s ongoing efforts to help overcome these difficult trading conditions.

The four are Angela Harris, Sheila Mcfee, Jo Skinner and Nick White, and each of them will be concentrating upon specific areas of the Yorkshire Dales and, in particular, Masham, Skipton, Richmond and Harrogate – as well as Sarah Howsen, the YDHTP Partnership Coordinator, assisting on the western fringes of the Dales around Sedbergh.

The taskforce is being supervised by officers from Richmondshire District Council.

Put simply, the partnership exists to support local tourism operators

John Jagger - Yorkshire Dales and Harrogate Tourism Partnership

John Jagger, Executive Chair of the Yorkshire Dales and Harrogate Tourism Partnership, who has given his full backing to this initiative, said: “Put simply, the partnership exists to support local tourism operators. That is why we are pulling out all the stops to provide practical help and advice to all those businesses which provide the great experience and wonderful welcome which our visitors have come to associate with Yorkshire and the Dales in particular.

“Our team of experts have been briefed to go the extra mile in providing advice on marketing, business grants, technical support and the Green Tourism Business Scheme. The appointment of our ‘tourism taskforce’ is a measure of our commitment to maintaining the reputation of the Yorkshire Dales and Harrogate as one of the most popular tourist areas in the UK.”