An indoor climbing centre in Brighouse has landed an early fifth birthday present after making the shortlist for a major tourism award.
ROKT Climbing Gym has been named a finalist in the small visitor category in the White Rose Awards, the biggest tourism awards in the UK, run by tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire.
It caps a remarkable few years for joint-owners Leigh Topping and Euan Noble who took over a derelict Brighouse flour mill in 2011 and within just three months created a business plan, secured planning, spent over £1million, formed a team, transformed the derelict mill and opened the doors.
Mr Noble, ROKT’s commercial director, said: “We’re all absolutely buzzing – just getting this far this early in the life of the business is brilliant, for the staff who work hard 24/7 and for the members and visitors.
“We created ROKT to be everything that climbing should be about – fun, problem-based activities, with a desire to get stronger, climb higher and above all to attract everyone regardless of background or ability.
“This reinforces our position now as a leading small visitor attraction and much more than just a climbing centre.
“We’ve now have such a wide mix of visitors, from British and European gold medal climbers to families and people from ages 2 to 95 – and more exciting expansion plans to announce soon.”
ROKT attracted an impressive 11,000 members in its first year alone and now has more than 30,000 members and welcomes around 47,000 visitors a year.
Reinforcing its tourism credentials, it’s estimated around 60% of visitors are from Yorkshire, 30% from around the UK and 10% are international visitors.
ROKT has also taken over the on-site pub and completely refurbished it – with The Millers Bar recently making it into the top 30 of Yorkshire’s favourite pubs within six months of opening, as voted for by the public.
