24/02/2009

Official figures released by Visit York show York Residents Festival 2009 to be the best ever. 22,654 residents turned out for the event - an increase of over 7,000 from the 2008 figures - with many attractions seeing record numbers of residents through their doors.

York Residents Festival - organised for the first time by Visit York - is the new name for the city's annual Residents First Weekend.  Attracting up to 20,000 York residents annually and now in its thirteenth year, the event is organised to offer local people the chance to explore their city as visitors.

YorkBoat proved to be the most popular attraction of the weekend, taking over 2,000 residents on its ‘Daytime City Cruise' throughout Saturday and Sunday.  Jorvik Viking Centre, which extended its offer to residents into the week following the festival, saw a record 1,794 residents visit the attraction, and Clifford's Tower saw a similar number with 1,800 visitors.

In addition, many of the other attractions involved in Residents Festival 2009 saw their best visitor numbers in the history of the event, including: DIG (626); Grand Opera House (690); York Dungeon (1130); Cold War Bunker (269); Roman Bath Museum (1010); Mansion House (80); and Yorkshire Museum of Farming at Murton Park (618).

New attractions incorporated into the 2009 programme included The Quilt Museum and Gallery, and Haunted on Stonegate who both had over 600 residents over the course of the festival.  Special exhibitions including the Yorkshire Film Archives at Tempest Anderson Hall also proved popular, with over 400 residents viewing ‘100 years of York life on film'. 

The York Glaziers Trust held their opening weekend for the new Bedern workshop during the festival, and saw fully-booked tours of York residents eager to get a glimpse of the York Minster stained-glass conservation in action.

Gillian Cruddas, Chief Executive of Visit York, said ‘We're delighted at the record turnout for this year's York Residents Festival. It's great to see that so many people experienced what the city has to offer.  We'd like to thank all the businesses in the city that helped make the event such a great success.'

A residents survey conducted over the course of the Festival weekend showed that 90% of residents had an awareness of the Festival and 75% visited attractions as a result of this.  72% of residents visited at least 3 attractions during the course of the event, with 30% of these visiting 5 or more exhibitions and attractions.  When surveyed, over 87% of residents recognised the importance of tourism to the local economy.  Other benefits recognised included the jobs created in the tourism sector and the increased facilities for both residents and visitors.  ENDS.

For more information, please contact Kay Hyde, PR Manager, Visit York, Tel: 01904 554451, email: kh@visityork.org or Katie Porter, PR Executive, Visit York, Tel: 01904 554436, email: kp@visityork.org