01/01/2011

York's tourism chief Gillian Cruddas has been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List, recognizing 15 years of service dedicated to the York tourism industry.  Back in 1995 when Gillian took charge, visitor numbers to York were at a healthy 4 million, the latest tourism statistics, however, show visitor numbers at 7 million and spend at an all time high of £443 million.  More people are visiting York than ever before, staying longer and spending more.

Gillian puts the secret of York's success down to creative marketing campaigns, being commercially driven and having a very close relationship with businesses in the city.  Visit York has also engaged the support of various high profile names over the years; Sir Richard Branson, the Archbishop of York and Dame Judi Dench, to name just three.

Gillian said, ‘Visit York is extremely fortunate to work with seven hundred member businesses, Welcome to Yorkshire and the City of York council, who all work together for the good of the city.  I'd like to dedicate this award to all of York's tourism sector who help us to showcase York to the world.'

Gillian also puts York's success down to developing an award-winning public/private sector partnership with very strong business support.  The Visit York tourism team has celebrated a raft of tourism successes under Gillian's helm, including scooping ‘European Tourism City of the Year' in 2007, ‘Best UK City' in the Telegraph Travel Awards in 2008 and 2009 and recently a ‘European Excellence Award' for Best Tourism Campaign.

Gillian said, ‘I'm thrilled with this award and the recognition it gives to the importance of tourism in York.  I compare being Chief Executive at Visit York to being a ship's captain, I may set the direction of where we are going, but the crew keep us on course and we all work as one united team to ensure York is renowned as a centre of excellence for tourism across the globe.'

2010 was a year of achievement for Visit York and all of its tourism partners.  May 2010 heralded the opening of York's new state of the art Visitor Information Centre - where visitor numbers are up by 75% on the previous year.  UK and European visitor numbers to the city have held strong in difficult economic circumstances and visits from the United States are making a recovery.

Gillian continued, ‘Our ultimate aim is to market York as a must-see world-class destination and we never rest on our laurels.  This year we will be waiting to see if York makes it to the tentative list for World Heritage Status, that's something we are very excited about.'  ENDS