This story is sponsored by the National Trust.

Finding something to do at the weekend can be challenging, especially if you have dogs, but the National Trust team at Fountains Abbey say they’re on a mission to make it easy. 

Under the National Trust’s Paw Print dog-friendliness scheme, the attraction has been named a three-paw site – the highest possible rating. 

Jenni Shepherd, senior marketing and communications officer at the National Trust, said:

“We’re always getting comments about how welcoming we are to dogs at Fountains Abbey.

“The admissions team even has doggy treats on hand for the waggiest tails!” 

Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Park is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, and includes the ruins of the medieval monastery, the Georgian water garden and the deer park.

Where you lead, your dog can follow!

Visiting dog-walkers can see all the historic attractions up close, as well as following paths around the site and trails through surrounding woodland.

“When people see the amazing abbey ruins, they often think they can’t possibly take a dog there, but actually at Fountains, dogs can go pretty much everywhere their owners do,” said Jenni. 

“We get a lot of tourists visiting from other areas of the country, where historic sites perhaps don’t welcome dogs so readily, and so they think they can’t bring their dogs here either.

“But Fountains Abbey is actually one of the best places to bring a dog. 

“There are drinking stations and dog waste bins throughout, and there’s a wide range of pet products for sale in the Visitor Centre shop.

“There’s even dog-friendly ice-cream available at the Studley refreshment kiosk and in the Visitor Centre restaurant. 

“Your dog can go everywhere you go. Dogs are even allowed in the deer park, as long as they’re kept on a short lead.” 

Woodland walks are a favourite pastime among dog-owners visiting Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal.

Last month, the National Trust unveiled plans to upgrade its facilities at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal.

A new visitor building will be built around the existing tearoom. There will be a fully accessible café, more toilets and a new admissions area, with all areas remaining dog-friendly. Jenni added:

 “Yorkshire as a destination is a dog-lovers’ paradise, and Fountains Abbey really stands out as one of the best places here to take your dog.

“There’s so much to do and see here, you can stay all day – and your dog never has to leave your side.” 

Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Find out more about visiting – with or without dogs – here.

Harrogate Borough Council spent £2,224,000 on Destination Harrogate in its first year operating — almost a million pounds more than budgeted, figures reveal.

The council’s draft statement of accounts, which will be discussed at a meeting this evening, lists income and expenditure for the year ending March 31, 2022.

Destination Harrogate was officially launched as the council’s destination management organisation last year.

It has four streams aimed at promoting tourism, hosting events, bringing in investment and supporting culture and was launched amid concerns the authority had a “fragmented” approach to tourism and marketing.

Its campaigns have focused on promoting the district as a health and wellbeing destination to capitalise on Harrogate’s spa town heritage.

Campaigns in 2021 included ‘Destination Christmas’, which saw a giant helter skelter installed in the town. In summer 2022, the organisation helped organise a four-day celebration on the Stray for the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

Destination Harrogate’s website also provides details about how businesses can invest in the district, including at the new Harrogate West Business Park on Burley Bank Road.

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The report found the organisation generated £342,000 in income during 2021/22 and there was an overall net spend of £1,942,000.

However, it says the authority spent an additional £946,000 more than budgeted.

As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service last week, the council paid out £220,000 in exit packages last year with the majority due to the Destination Harrogate restructure that merged marketing teams at Visit Harrogate and Harrogate Convention Centre.

A council spokesperson said:

“Aside from investment to premises, funded through reserves, much of the expenditure during the destination management organisation’s early stages was in staffing the new service to ensure the organisation was fit for purpose and suitably flexible to respond to changing customer expectations/market developments and seasonal demand.

“While the 2021 restructure enabled the right mix of skills and experience to be in place to deliver the destination management organisation’s vision and strategy, the new service was no greater in size, in terms of employees, staffing costs or departmental budget than the previous service that it replaced.

“Prior to March 31 2022 the destination management organisation launched a new events bureau, Events Harrogate, and implemented successful marketing activity to increase awareness of the Harrogate district as a visitor destination and boost subsequent visitor expenditure – for example, the award-winning Destination Christmas campaign in 2021.

“Industry data shows that visitors to the Harrogate district were staying longer and spending more money with local businesses in 2021 than they did prior to the pandemic.

“Throughout 2022, Destination Harrogate delivered a wealth of successful events to bring more visitors into the Harrogate district, alongside successful marketing campaigns promoting the district as a first choice health and wellbeing destination, destination for garden-themed holidays and Christmas destination.

“In addition to visitor-facing marketing campaigns, the destination management organisation has also, through Events Harrogate, been working to bring more events into the district, while Invest Harrogate continues to attract inward investment in the district to encourage long-term growth in the economy. We can look forward to further successful outcomes for Destination Harrogate as we move forward into 2023 and beyond.”

Harrogate Borough Council‘s tourism body, Destination Harrogate, will use social media influencers again this year to promote the town’s Christmas festivities.

Julia Lumley, place marketing manager at Destination Harrogate, gave a presentation to Harrogate BID members at the Yorkshire Hotel on Thursday. She described how the body will be trying to attract visitors to the town during November and December.

Initiatives include a dedicated Christmas website where businesses can upload events, a printed guide, online campaigns, videos and photography, as well as competitions.

Ms Lumley also confirmed Destination Harrogate will be paying influencers to visit the town throughout the Christmas period.

The aim is for influencers to help reach audiences in a way that is more organic and personal than traditional advertising campaigns.

Last year, the Stray Ferret revealed Destination Harrogate paid influencer Heather Cowper £700 to make several posts about Christmas in Harrogate.

Read more:

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• Ripon plans some light relief this Christmas

But her posts performed poorly, raising questions over whether the fee represented value for money. A Liberal Democrat councillor branded the spend a “waste of money”.

However, the criticism hasn’t put Destination Harrogate off using influencers again.

On Friday, it Tweeted that it recently used vlogger Amy Berry to promote the town. She has 135,000 followers on Instagram.

Ms Berry’s video about a trip to Harrogate has proved to be popular. It includes visits to the Turkish Baths and Rudding Park and has been liked over 1,200 times in 24 hours.

Although Destination Harrogate will return to using social media influencers over Christmas, another campaign from last year won’t be returning.

Following a question from a member of the audience at the BID meeting, Ms Lumley said the £5,000 snow globe at Kings Cross will not be used again.

Drone shots taken of Plumpton Rocks over the weekend reveal the newly restored site is looking better than ever.

The Grade II* listed visitor attraction reopened on Saturday after being closed to visitors for almost three years.

The site fell into disrepair towards the end of the last century before Historic England added it to the “Heritage at Risk Register” in 2012.

Since then Historic England has worked with the current owners and spent more than £400,000.

Plumpton Rocks closed again in October 2019 to do further work on the dam and bring it up to standard for the Reservoirs Act 1975, but covid further delayed the works.

Much of the work has been to restore the lake back to how it looked in the 18th century.

Credit – Darren Leeming

The owner of the site, Robert de Plumpton Hunter, told the Stray Ferret that he used artwork created by one of the most famous ever English painters to inspire the restoration.

Turner painted a watercolour of Plumpton Rocks in 1797 and more sketches of the site are stored at the Tate in London, which were used to inspire the refurbishment.

Mr Hunter said:

“You really got a feel of what the landscape looked like 200 years ago, and we were able to use those sketches to aid the restoration. If Turner turned up now he would absolutely recognise the landscape, that is special.”

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Delays are expected until Spring next year on a key junction between Harrogate and Leeds Bradford Airport while roadworks take place on the A660 and the A658.

The Dyneley Arms junction, at the top of Pool Bank, connects Pool-in-Wharfedale to north Leeds, as well as to Bradford, Otley and the airport.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority is spending £2.4m on the scheme, which involves widening roads and adding crossings and turning lanes.

The council said the works will improve journey times between Leeds and Harrogate. The main works will begin on September 12.

Cllr Helen Hayden, Labour councillor on Leeds City Council said:

“This junction was ranked one of the top congested junctions in the Leeds district. I’m pleased to see after a lot of efforts to deliver the scheme, we’re finally able to make a start to improve capacity at the junction.

“The scheme will also provide benefits to improve journey times between Leeds and Harrogate, and the intervening villages when it completes in spring next year. Like many schemes in construction across Leeds, we’re advising motorists to allow more time for journeys and to plan ahead where possible. We apologise in advance of any inconvenience caused.”

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• Towns at centre of North Yorkshire culture strategy

A new council-backed tourism body for North Yorkshire is expected to launch by spring next year, despite continuing uncertainty about what its functions will be.

A meeting of local authority leaders in North Yorkshire and York heard council officers’ discussions with regional tourism firms were set to conclude this month, the outcomes of which would shape what type of organisation could be developed and its funding structure.

The meeting was told the development of a proposal for a replacement organisation to Welcome to Yorkshire remained at a very early stage, four months after it was placed in administration following years of financial and reputational issues.

However, council chiefs for York and Harrogate highlighted their areas already had well-established tourism marketing and management services and were looking for a strategic regional body to support.

Harrogate Borough Council chief executive Wallace Sampson told the meeting it was important that organisations such as its tourism body, Destination Harrogate, did not lose their identity. He said:

“What we’d be keen to see is some integration with a region-wide body. We feel there are some strong benefits to marketing the Yorkshire region as a whole because it has a strong brand. ”

After the meeting, North Yorkshire County Council leader Councillor Carl Les said:

“What we’re looking at as leaders is more about destination management, not just destination marketing.

“It was always thought to have the proper conversations with people in the industry and the councils that it would take until the autumn before an option could be put before the leaders.”

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While some council leaders say the collapse of Welcome to Yorkshire has seen the loss of potential significant interventions in the tourism economy this year,  some councils have used their own staff to take on tasks previously undertaken by the tourism body.

The meeting heard it remained far from clear what type of publicly-backed tourism organisation was wanted across York and North Yorkshire, let alone Yorkshire as a whole, with different areas seeking a body with different functions.

Complications in deciding the way forward, the meeting heard, included agreeing potential deals with Wensleydale entrepreneur Robin Scott’s Silicone Dales, who bought Welcome to Yorkshire’s assets, including the rights to the Tour de Yorkshire, in April.

North Yorkshire County Council chief executive Richard Flinton said following further discussions between the council and the tourism sector a decision on the new organisation’s structure was scheduled to made before Christmas in the hope that the new tourism body could be launched by April next year.

He described the timescale as being “tight and ambitious”.

The region’s official tourism agency was placed into administration at the start of March after council leaders pulled the plug on public funding after years of reputational and financial problems.

Mr Flinton said while Welcome to Yorkshire’s assets had not been bought by a local government body, there was still “a lot of appetite” amongst councils for a body established to protect tourism, promote the brand of Yorkshire and pick up some of Welcome to Yorkshire’s work.

Alongside Ripon’s iconic cathedral and historic market, canal cruises are on the list of visitor and tourist attractions on a sign guiding motorists to the city centre.

Many of those tempted for the first time to make the turn off the bypass to ‘stay awhile amid Ripon’s ancient charms’ may not realise that this place is also a waterway wonderland, with three rivers, a wetlands area with lake and the hidden gem of a canal.

The arrival of the railway at the height of Victorian Britain’s industrial revolution, spelled the end of the line for the man-made navigation. But far-sighted people in the city saw its environmental, leisure and recreational potential and saved it.

Now there are plans in hand to celebrate the canal’s 250th anniversary in September 2023 — an event that will also give visitors a chance to enjoy Ripon’s wealth of watery assets.

The Ure, Skell and Laver each have their own characteristics and attractions, including wooded walks, along river banks linked by iron, stone. concrete and wooden bridges.

A wooded walk along the River Skell, which runs parallel with Ripon Canal

There’s a ford crossing the Skell that is safe to drive through when water levels allow and stepping stones, which are popular with pedestrians and dog walkers.

Otters have been spotted in the city’s rivers and canal, signalling the fact that water quality has been dramatically improved, thanks to the work of conservation volunteers, the Canal and River Trust and Environment Agency.

The canal’s 250th anniversary

Richard Willis, who owns and operates Ripon Scenic Cruises and provides trips from the canal basin off Bondgate Green, is planning the festival that will celebrate the waterway’s notable milestone.

Richard Willis is planning a festival in the canal basin in September 2023

In this, his 16th season of offering scenic journeys aboard his custom-made Pride of Ripon canal boat, Mr Willis is already looking forward to next year.

He told the Stray Ferret:

“This is a magnificent opportunity for Ripon to put itself in the UK spotlight for enthusiasts and people who enjoy the gentle and idyllic pleasures of waterside or waterborne leisure activities.”

The picturesque approach to the canal basin

He is well-placed to speak about the magnetic attraction that brings people back time and again after they have had their first cruise.

Mr Willis said:

“We have regular customers who have been coming to us for years from across the Harrogate district and further afield.

“They come specifically for a cruise and while here, they visit the cathedral, museums and other attractions in the city – all good for the tourist economy.”

He added:

“The Pride of Ripon was tied up for a lot of last year because of the covid lockdown, but once restrictions lifted in July, we were busy every day.

“At the end of the season we were able to reflect on our best-ever year of operating here.

“That’s why I am so confident that a canal-focused festival in the basin will be a great success.”

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Nearly half of the total number of staff at Welcome to Yorkshire have been made redundant after the organisation was placed into administration.

Rob Adamson, Michael Kienlen and Daryl Warwick of Armstrong Watson LLP were appointed joint administrators of the troubled tourism body earlier this month.

The move followed “increasingly challenging” financial circumstances for Welcome to Yorkshire, which faced “a task of securing sufficient funding”, according to chairman Sir Peter Box CBE.

In a statement, the administrators said that 11 staff had now been made redundant with 12 retained.

The statement added:

“Welcome to Yorkshire had a number of ongoing projects at the time it was placed into administration.

“The joint administrators are currently engaging with the various stakeholders to determine whether these projects can continue in the short-term whilst they seek to establish whether a buyer can be sought for the business and assets.

“Whilst this process is ongoing, the business is operating using a reduced workforce. Regrettably 11 employees were made redundant on Tuesday with the remaining 12 members of staff currently being retained.

“The joint administrators are aware that Welcome to Yorkshire has a large membership base and the subscription position will be reviewed in the coming days. The joint administrators have been advised that all advance subscriptions were held separately by Welcome to Yorkshire. All relevant parties will be contacted in due course.

“Unfortunately a number of events that were due to take place in the coming weeks will now be cancelled – affected parties will be contacted as soon as possible.”

Controversy and cash flow problems

Administration followed a troubled few years for Welcome to Yorkshire.

In September, James Mason resigned as chief executive and the body had to approach local councils to help bail it out financially during the covid pandemic in 2020.

Read more:

• Welcome to Yorkshire enters administration
• Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive resigns
• Chief executive defends Welcome to Yorkshire after accountability allegations

Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council gave Welcome to Yorkshire £31,000 and £290,000 respectively to plug its £1.4 million funding gap.

The body also had to take out a £500,000 loan in September 2019 from North Yorkshire County Council to keep it afloat.

In March 2019 there was controversy when former boss, Sir Gary Verity, resigned on health grounds. He later faced allegations of bullying and inappropriately claiming expenses, which he denied.

Two inquiries carried out after Sir Gary’s resignation cost the tourism body £482,500.

Long before ‘wellness’ became a buzzword, the Victorians were effectively already practising it.

And Harrogate led the way — even back then.

The wealthy and fashionable flocked to the spa town to experience its green open spaces and recuperative and healing powers of spring waters, which were first discovered by William Slingsby in the late 16th century.

Health and wellbeing hotspot

Now, more than a century after the Victorian era, Harrogate Borough Council’s new tourism body, Destination Harrogate, is set to promote the district as a health and wellbeing hotspot once again.

It will draw on the district’s rich spa heritage and accessibility to the great outdoors to attract visitors, events and investment to create a strong local economy.

The approach forms one of three key objectives in a three-year plan, which sets out a vision, priorities and actions that will be put in place to make the district “a first choice destination”.

Speaking to the Stray Ferret, Gemma Rio, head of Destination Harrogate, explained what this would involve.

She said:

“People have been coming to Harrogate since 1571 to take the waters and have a leisure experience, so that’s not new, but it has developed over the years.

“Now you can still go to the Royal Pump Room Museum and understand the spa heritage and our roots and how we became this great leisure destination, but you can also go to the Turkish Baths, you can go and have an incredible spa experience at Rudding Park or Grantley Hall.

“So the whole district is very good at that traditional health and wellbeing piece.”

Rudding Park Spa.

Wellbeing different for everyone

Ms Rio, who was appointed in October 2020, said one lesson that had been learnt as a result of the pandemic was that health and wellbeing is different to everyone.

She said:

“For some people it is a massage and a jacuzzi, but to others it’s a walk in the Nidderdale AONB, or it’s seeing a show at the theatre, or it’s just being with family around the table at one of our great independent restaurants. So that’s what we are going to try and pull out in our campaign.”

The multi-channel campaign, which will have a digital marketing focus, is being launched in April and will run for most of the year.

Ms Rio said:

“If someone is a really avid walker, we want to tell them that story and plan itineraries for them around walking and country pubs.

“Our supporting campaigns will also try and pick up the same messages.

“Every year Visit Harrogate ran a successful gardening campaign. Our partners loved that campaign, they have seen some great results from it.

“Obviously as a destination, gardening is a real strength of ours as well. We’ve got RHS Harlow Carr, Newby Hall and various places that have great gardens.

“So even our gardens campaign is going to try and link in with the health and wellbeing priority as well.”

RHS Garden Harlow Carr.

Read more:

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• Head appointed to lead new Harrogate district tourism body

Attracting business events

The focus on health and wellbeing will also be used to attract more leisure and business events, with one of the target sectors for conferences being the medical industry, Ms Rio explained.

She said:

“Where else to hold your medical conference than a destination that has this incredible spa heritage and medical story to tell?

“Where better to base you new health and wellbeing business, or really any business?

“If you want to invest in a place, knowing that you’re going to be somewhere where your employees health and wellbeing will be looked after. A place where their work/life balance will be stronger. It’s much easier to employ people to come and join you if you base yourself somewhere like the Harrogate district.

“It’s a really exciting campaign.”

Collaboration is key

Ms Rio said when the three-year blueprint, known as the Destination Management Plan (DMP), was written, a consultation with residents and businesses was carried out in order to come up with the three main priorities set out in the document.

She said:

“This theme came up over and over again and I think in many ways it’s a bit of a no-brainer. We’ve got the history, we’ve got a great story to tell.

“Health and wellbeing has rocketed as a trend over the past couple of years. Plus we already have strong products, like the Turkish Baths. So it’s not trying to promote something that we are not actually that good at.

“It’s not rocket science what we have come up with. But I think what we have not done as a destination is work together to really push that in the same way that a place like Bath does.

“The story has always been there but we haven’t really taken advantage of it in a way that we can now.

“Everyone is really keen to work with us to see this become a success, and I think as a destination that’s the only way it can work. That collaboration is absolutely key.”

‘Core part’ of district’s identity

Ms Rio said the health and wellbeing campaign will continue to evolve and grow as a “core part” of the district’s identity.

She said:

“Other campaigns will run alongside it to highlight other strands such as retail or arts and culture, but there will always be this golden thread running through it.

“A trip to Harrogate district is good for you, regardless of whether you are into massage, theatre or walking.”

Nidderdale AONB.

One of the main messages that will be promoted by the campaign will be length of stay, which will aim to encourage visitors to come for long weekends or weeks away in the district.

Ms Rio added:

“The way we do that is we try and prepare itineraries. So we are adding some functionality to the Visit Harrogate website this year that makes it easy for someone to say ‘I’m going to go to this experience in the morning, have lunch at this pub, stay at this hotel’. That helps to encourage people to stay longer, which benefits the local economy.”

Taxpayers in North Yorkshire are set to fund a new tourism organisation in the wake of Welcome to Yorkshire’s demise.

Welcome to Yorkshire entered administration on Tuesday after years of financial and reputational difficulties.

Yorkshire Leaders Board, which represents council leaders and metro mayors, agreed at a private meeting this week there should be a new regional destination marketing organisation funded by local authority grants. A timeline will be agreed in May.

The prospect of local authorities, including North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council, funding another tourism body has prompted concrns.

Stuart Parsons, leader of the Independent group on the Conservative-controlled county council, said:

“North Yorkshire County Council and the district / borough councils have spent vast amounts supporting this organisation with little or no return.

“The idea of setting up another group at this moment is just laughable.”

Welcome to Yorkshire in happier times.

‘Couldn’t organise a tea party’

Cllr Parsons was also critical of the decision by Yorkshire Leaders Board to publish a summary of a tourism report by Merran McRae, a former chief executive of Wakefield and Calderdale councils, rather than the full report. He added:

“We haven’t seen the report and so don’t know just how rotten things were. Also given that the leaders of North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council served on the existing board I’m afraid that I would have no confidence in their ability to organise a tea party let alone a regional agency.

“All previous board members must be prevented from serving on any new organisation as they have failed taxpayers.”

Stuart Parsons

Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, was a Welcome to Yorkshire board member for five years until administration. Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council, was a board member from 2016 to 2019.

A Conservative county councillor, who asked not to be named, branded Cllr Les’ five years on the board as a “litany of failure”, adding:

“It fits with other issues showing a lack of judgement — the loss-making Brierley Group companies and the £9m acquisition of the Royal Baths in Harrogate.

“Some of the core services North Yorkshire County Council runs are excellent but when it comes to commercial judgement, it’s a series of disasters.”

Read more:

• Welcome to Yorkshire enters administration
• Harrogate council to continue to fund Welcome to Yorkshire

£85,000 a year from county council

The county council paid annual subscriptions of £85,000 to Welcome to Yorkshire.

Carl Les

Cllr Les said the new tourism body would be smaller than Welcome to Yorkshire and focus on strategic marketing to “get people interested in coming to Yorkshire” and leave specific initiatives to other groups.

He said his anonymous critic “doesn’t actually know an awful lot about what has happened” and added “it was a pity they didn’t challenge me face-to-face”.

Cllr Les added he was unable to discuss Welcome to Yorkshire in detail as it was now being managed by administrators.

£62,100 since 2012 from Harrogate Borough Council

Harrogate Borough Council has paid £62,100 from its holiday tourism marketing budget to Welcome to Yorkshire over the last decade — but hopes to get £12,100 reimbursed.

A spokesman added:

“We recognise the need for an organisation that has a Yorkshire-wide focus to help develop the Yorkshire brand in order to attract visitors to the region.

“This enables us to build on the successes of Destination Harrogate, and the reputation we have as an events destination, to drive both leisure and business visitors to the Harrogate district.”

Welcome to Yorkshire chairman Peter Box said in a statement:

“The past three years have been incredibly difficult for board members and staff as we have endeavoured to deal with well-publicised legacy issues.

“These matters, coupled with the impact of covid and the task of securing sufficient funding from the public and private sectors to place Welcome to Yorkshire on a sound financial footing, have made the situation increasingly challenging.”

“It is my sincere hope that the public sector will recognise the value of a new regional destination management organisation to build on the many achievements of WtY.

Council leader Richard Cooper has not responded to a request for comment by the Stray Ferret.

Richard Cooper

Armstrong Watson LLP has been appointed as joint administrators of Welcome to Yorkshire.

County Councillor Gareth Dadd, North Yorkshire’s deputy leader for finance and assets, said in a statement:

“This is disappointing news, but we now have an opportunity to work with all our partners across Yorkshire to build a new destination marketing company with a new funding model that will help the whole of Yorkshire punch its weight and build on its globally recognised brand.

“North Yorkshire has seen its fair share of benefits from the work of Welcome to Yorkshire in past years in attracting visitors to the county for world class events such as Tour de Yorkshire and our role in the Grand Depart of the Tour de France. And it’s important to say that all loans made to the Welcome to Yorkshire by the county council have been repaid in full with agreed interest.”

It remains to be seen whether the new organisation, which could be run by many of those involved with Welcome to Yorkshire, will avoid the same mistakes.