Leeds - More attractive destination for tourists/foreigners

Perhaps it's down to the increasing number of international students at Leeds and Leeds Met Unis. The places to visit if you're an international student from outside the city seem to be the historic towns, Manchester ("so much to answer for"), Liverpool and London

If I'm honest, I don't think there's anything particularly outstanding in Leeds that could get international tourists falling over themselves to visit. Leeds Bridge is a site of real world significance and interest, but in world terms it's pretty underwhelming.

I read an interesting piece about Liverpool a year or two ago, in which the writer thought they should have turned themselves into a tourist town after the war, keeping its historic architecture and gradually scaling down industry. Because it was unaffected by ww2 bombing, I often wonder whether Leeds should have gone the same route, promoting places like Gott's Mill adjacent to what could have been the quintessential Victorian/Edwardian city centre.

Oh well, didn't happen. Maybe Bradford should have gone for tourism while Leeds remained the regional capital. Blah.

lol

How appropriate:

Migrants 'boost the UK economy'
POLISH plumbers and other migrants from nations that joined the European Union last year have boosted the UK economy by keeping interest rates down, a report claimed today.
The Ernst & Young Item Club, which uses the Treasury's model of the economy for its forecasts, said the cost of borrowing would be five per cent instead of the current mark of 4.5 per cent without the arrival of people willing to work. It joins experts including Bank of England governor Mervyn King in concluding that immigration since 10 new countries joined the EU in May 2004 has been good for the UK economy.
According to the ITEM Club, migrants from countries such as Poland and Slovenia have plugged gaps in industries ranging from hospitality to catering.
Almost 300,000 immigrants have taken jobs in the UK in the past three years and have not isolated themselves to London, it found.
"Interest rates have stabilised at an historically low level and that has boosted consumer confidence and house prices," Mr Spencer said.
Strength
He noted that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England kept a close eye on house prices and they had been stronger than many members expected.
"Although the strength of the housing market has made the MPC reluctant to cut interest rates to stimulate demand, the buoyancy of house prices and transactions will support consumer spending," Mr Spencer added.
The ITEM Club also suggested exports began to outpace imports in 2005 for the first time in a decade.
l TELECOMS group BT said today that it believed a Government guarantee covered around three-quarters, or £28bn, of its pension scheme liabilities.
The former state monopoly also said its pension scheme actuary, Watson Wyatt, believed the existence of the guarantee would lower the amount BT would have to pay to Britain's new pension regulator for running a pension fund deficit.
Interest in the so-called "crown guarantee" has risen in recent weeks on speculation that it could encourage bidders, who might have been put off previously by BT's big pension deficit.
BT's last triennial valuation concluded the deficit was £2.1bn as of December 31, 2002.
24 April 2006

JET2 will have added to the visitors. it was reported that 15% of passengers handled at Doncaster in the first year were foreign visitors to the region. Doncaster has handled 800,000 in its first year. I guess with 3m passengers flying into Leeds it would make sense to assume that a proportion of these are foreign.

There are a lot of foreign companies opening regional offices in Leeds and the surrounding area and this will account for some of the foreign voices heard.

I guess the final thing to consider is that the world is much smaller a place now and I guess that for all the British people exploring new places in Eastern Europe etc there must be as many (as a proportion) coming to see 'new' British cities.

I would disagree that Leeds has little to offer in terms of tourism. I would suggest that many people come to a city simply to visit it and see what is there. The cost of travel is now so low that Europeans can come to Leeds to experience the city in all the ways it has to offer and not just museums and theatre. Some of the shops most popular now with Europeans are the likes of Top Shop and DP. I would imagine that many people come in for the shopping and also the chance to use Leeds as a base for the countryside etc.

The need to promote ourselves to the near continent

I would also suggest that we do not promote Leeds enough to the near continent. Leeds is on the M62 corridor, which is part of the Trans European Network, part of a landbridge between Continental Europe and Ireland. Taking the ferry from Rotterdam or Zeebrugge to Hull (the trip the other way round is well worth it if you want a shortbreak over a long weekend, Rotterdam especially if you wanna look at architecture - take a look at the city of Rotterdam on skyscrapercity) and a quick coach or rail transfer to Leeds is not that difficult. We could have more near neighbour lesuire visitors. The weakness though is there to see, if you take a look at P&O's Dutch website on suggested trips - Leeds is not mentioned - what's that about? link below

http://www.poferries.nl/portal/page?_pageid=1617,288077&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&ph=www.poferries.nl&

I think we should protest to P&O get them to change the website and add Leeds on and improve connections to Leeds. Promote Leeds more into the feeder countries (i.e. Holland, Belgium, Germany and France). I don't think that Lincoln, sorry Lincoln, apart from the Cathedral has much? Shopping centre, is there one? Any national collections? (whoops i forgot th national motorcycle museum). Any fantastic stately homes? Close to any world heritage sites? Not really any further from Hull? So Marketing Leeds lets steel a march on Manchester on this and exploit the Yorkshire continental links. Leeds is the biggest city in Yorkshire and I'm not having a go at Sheffield before anybody starts......

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