European Cities Celebration Event - 2 August 2007
Issued By: Visit York
Issue Date: 2 August 2007
News Release
Two hundred of York's tourism businesses and VIP guests will gather at the National Railway Museum this Thursday 2nd August to celebrate York becoming European Tourism City of the Year.
York was crowned Europe's top city destination by European Cities Marketing (ECM). The first ever European Cities Tourism Awards were attended by over four hundred tourism professionals at a gala dinner in Athens in June. York beat off competition from finalists Gothenburg and Valencia to win the prestigious title.
The event on Thursday is an opportunity for the city to celebrate winning the award and more importantly to find out how all of the city's tourism businesses can benefit from it. Speakers will include Gillian Cruddas, Chief Executive of Visit York, Elizabeth Jeffreys, Co-ordinator of the European Cities Tourism Awards and Dionysis Bekatoros, York Ambassador for 2007.
Gillian will be outlining a campaign to promote York as the best city to visit in Europe for this year and beyond The campaign compares shopping in the Shambles with shopping in Milan, racing in York with the Curragh in Ireland, the City Walls with the City Walls in Budapest, Clifford's Tower with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, St Mary's Abbey with Rome's Coliseum, the river Ouse with Austria's Danube, Micklegate Bar with the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and York Minster with the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
Gillian said, 'By comparing York's major landmarks with the some of the most famous landmarks in Europe we are aiming to get across the message that York can compete with the very best. We will be using these messages in key travel trade and consumer exhibitions in the coming months, in our visitor guide and on the www.visityork.org website. This award has the potential to be of huge benefit to all of York's businesses and we hope that people in the city can really get behind promoting it too. This award will enable us to market ourselves even more strongly and is certain to help increase visitor numbers from Europe and beyond.'
The European awards scheme aims to celebrate world-class performance and to provide a benchmark for best practice among Europe's tourism cities and tourism organisations. In line with its efforts to strive for world-class performance and prompted by the phenomenal growth of city tourism over the last few years, European Cities Marketing launched the first European Cities Tourism Annual Awards to recognise excellence and professionalism both among Europe's tourism cities and their tourism organisations.
Ian Tempest, Tourism Manager at the City of York Council said, 'This is a particularly exciting tribute to tourism in York, as it values the work that teams from the Council, the Visit York, so many local businesses and partners such as Yorkshire Forward have put in over many years in improving the quality of the visitor offer as well as the marketing of York as a visitor destination. Tourism is a great success story for York - we're delighted the city has won this prestigious award'. ENDS
Press Contact: Kay Hyde, PR Manager, York Tourism Partnership, Visit York Tel: 01904 554451 email: kh@visityork.org Mobile 07961 828092.
Notes To The Editor
Speeches will begin at 6.30pm.
European Cities Marketing (ECM) is a membership network representing 130 cities from 30 countries across Europe, members include Berlin, Dublin, Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, York and Vienna. It is an initiative that brings together the former European Cities Tourism (ECT) and the European Federation of Conference Towns (EFCT), which now creates the leading tourism organisations in Europe, linking the leisure and convention sectors. York was accepted as a member in 2005.
York won in the category 'European Tourism City of the Year'. The criteria for this category are as follows:
. A positive and long-lasting economic and social impact
. A top quality visitor experience
. Effective leadership, as well as partnership between all public and private sector stakeholders
. Management policies that enhance the social, environmental and cultural performance of the city
. An integrated transport infrastructure
. A strategic investment programme to attract future visitors
The title of Best European City Tourism Organisation went to Gothenburg, with a special commendation given to Reykjavik.
VIP Guests at the event include: The Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Irene Waudby, the Lord Mayor's consort, Mr Derek Waudby, the Sheriff of York, Councillor Keith Hyman, the Sheriff's Lady, Mrs Karen Hyman, York's MP Hugh Bayley, Elizabeth Jeffreys from European Cities Marketing, Ian Collins from Yorkshire Forward, Bill Woolley, City of York Council, Sir Ron Cooke from Without Walls and Andrew Scott, Head of the National Railway Museum.
Photo Opportunity: 6:30pm - Key speakers will be available to photograph on stage at the end of speeches (6.45pm) - the Award certificate and Award Trophy will be on hand.