MPs looking to boost rural tourism have been told that the rules restricting the use of brown signs to highlight tourist attractions are holding the visitor economy back.
Yorkshire tourism boss Sir Gary Verity told a Westminster watchdog committee which Rishi Sunak sits on that he had tried and failed to persuade the Highways Agency to erect signs on the trunk road network indicating the presence of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors National Parks.
Sir Gary said the Agency had told him that national parks were not eligible. He told MPs: “If we want to say to people, here are some really nice things to look at and you might want to think about turning off here, a sign would not be the most ridiculous thing.”
The Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive was in Westminster giving evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee after Rishi Sunak, a committee member, had suggested Sir Gary’s views would be useful in formulating a report on how to improve rural tourism.
Responding to Sir Gary’s plea, Mr Sunak said he had secured signs for Wensleydale on the new A1 under a special dispensation granted by ministers but he had also been told that he would have to seek a further special arrangement if Swaledale was to benefit.
Mr Sunak explained that the Highways Agency’s current eligibility criteria were based upon the requirement to direct traffic to specific tourist attractions. National parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty were excluded.
The MPs agreed to consider including a recommendation about the tourist signs criteria when compiling their final report.
Mr Sunak also asked Sir Gary about the funding arrangements for tourism organisations like Welcome to Yorkshire and what might be done to improve them.
Sir Gary said WTY received no direct funding but raised large amounts of money from private sector tourism businesses. He said it would be helpful if matchfunding arrangements could be set up where sums raised from the industry for tourism promotion initiatives would be matched by the Government.
This would encourage the businesses that didn’t currently contribute to WTY but enjoyed the benefits it secured to do so in future, he said.
Sir Gary said that while Yorkshire tourism had enjoyed three consecutive years of growth he accepted there was a great opportunity to attract more overseas and UK visitors to Britain’s rural areas.
Practical measures that would help included better ticketing arrangements so that tourists could, for example book a through rail ticket from Europe to all parts of the UK and not just London.
Better mobile phone connectivity would also help, particularly in attracting younger visitors, he said.