Member Article

Yorkshire Based Blue Badge Tour Guide & Global Tourism Specialist Showcase the County at Cannes

Revealing…

The Chinese loved Yorkshire Tweed The Americans loved Yorkshire history The Australians wanted to dry stone wall

Having recently secured nearly £100,000 worth of funding from the VisitEngland fund to develop packaged Yorkshire Tourism products to take to the US and Canadian markets, Tim Barber - Owner of Real Yorkshire Tours and Lyndsey Thomas - Director of Tourism Marketing & Comms agency All About the Story and Founder of Girl About Yorkshire and Yorkshire’s Best Adventures have just returned from showcasing our county at Cannes and the appeal of the region, it appears, is vast.

Recently joining forces to create Yorkshire’s only luxury Destination Management Company with Blue Badge Tourism Guides at the forefront of the business, Real Yorkshire DMC last week showcased Yorkshire at The International Luxury Travel Market in Cannes - the no.1 leading luxury travel trade event globally featuring the world’s leading and most luxurious tourism brands.

Feedback from international followers was varied and Lyndsey reveals just what it is about Yorkshire that appeals to international travellers. She said:“The feedback was so diverse across nationalities but what came out was that it’s good old Yorkshire industries that intrigue and excite international visitors. The Chinese loved Yorkshire tweed;The Americans were interested in our industry, history and hearty traditional food; whereas the Australians loved the idea of building a dry stone wall and one Italian journalist from Conde Naste Italy was totally thrilled at the idea of delivering a lamb!. I love that Yorkshire provides all this - and more - and we were so proud to be on a mission to illustrate to a diverse set of cultures just what Yorkshire has to offer”.

Real Yorkshire DMC is a business-to-business venture established to build immersive, experience-lead Luxury tours of Yorkshire and sell them via tour operators, travel agents and travel planners in key international markets globally.

Lyndsey added: “This business was set up, and supported by Visit England because Yorkshire’s time is now. Tourism is evolving - travellers no longer just associate luxury with opulence - luxury is now also defined by experience, and in the 45 meetings Tim and I had with some of Asia’s and North America’s most influential travel designers and planners, Yorkshire is certainly a luxury destination. We talked a lot about our ‘Real Yorkshire Experiences’ programme made up of immersive, uniquely Yorkshire experiences - dry-stone walling classes, sheep-shearing, sausage-making, lambing, distilling gin in a castle, perfecting a proper Yorkshire pudding in a cookery school, Grouse shooting, fossil hunting and more and everyone was excited to hear about all these extraordinary experiences.We came away from ILTM with a little black book of travel planners who want to use Real Yorkshire DMC as their go-to specialist holiday planners for Yorkshire and we’re really excited about what this means for the independent Yorkshire tourism businesses whom we work with.”

With statistics showing that tourism is worth £8billion to the Yorkshire economy with £516million overall international spend and overseas visitors on the increase * Real Yorkshire Tours DMC is looking to capitalise on this growth for independent Yorkshire tourism businesses.

Director and co-founder of Real Yorkshire Tours DMC, Tim Barber, from York, is a Yorkshire Blue Badge Guide and owner of Tim Barber’s Real Yorkshire Tours which offers private day tours of Yorkshire. Tim is a Historian-come-Yorkshire-storyteller whose mission is to expose his clients to ‘the proper Yorkshire’ really getting under the skin of Yorkshire’s Roman & Viking Heritage, Norman Castles, Tudor Houses, Stately Homes, Medieval Abbeys, Jurassic Coastline, breathtaking National Parks, TV locations, film sets and famous Yorkshire folk - and he found that often his clients were coming from America. Real Yorkshire Tours DMC has been launched to create unique experiences - some of which are exclusive to Real Yorkshire DMC and packages Tim’s highly-acclaimed immersive day trips up with the best Yorkshire accommodation, featuring independent character filled luxury hotels, fine-dining experiences in some of Yorkshire’s best Michelin-starred restaurants and award-winning pubs, alongside providing transfers and travel across Yorkshire in luxury transport.

With experience managing product development, marketing, media relations, advertising and sales strategy for high-profile tourism clients including ILoveNY, Hawaii Tourism, Ontario Tourism and Yosemite National Park, Lyndsey is now excited to bring her expertise to her home county. Lyndsey is also the founder of Girl About Yorkshire, an honest Yorkshire blog which has attracted interest from America, New Zealand, Australia and Europe over the last 12 months as she journals her adventures across Yorkshire.

Lyndsey said: “Having worked with tour operators, DMCs and other wholesaler partners I understand the complexities of a tourism brand’s routes to market and feel passionately about sharing more of Yorkshire with the rest of the world. Yorkshire is where I grew up and where I now run my businesses from, after returning from a 12 year career in London. We would love to hear from any Yorkshire venues who would like to be showcased via Real Yorkshire DMC as we work closely with tourism businesses to build fully inclusive tours of Yorkshire, to then take to international markets.Our key target markets for year one are The USA, Canada & Australia with a strong focus on the silver pound segment first and foremost, followed by the high earning family market”.

More information and details on how Yorkshire tourism business owners can get involved can be found by searching ‘Real Yorkshire DMC’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Becky Hayles .