TOURISM in Kirklees faces a challenging year.
But the region may actually benefit from worldwide recession.
The national tourism agency, VisitBritain, expects visits to the UK from abroad to fall by a further 0.7% in 2009 on top of a 2.7% fall in 2008 and income from foreign tourists to drop by 2% in real terms.
But leading Kirklees councillor Ken Sims believes cash-strapped Brits may choose to holiday in the UK rather than go abroad.
Clr Sims, Kirklees Cabinet’s member responsible for tourism, said this area may attract foreigners keen to take advantage of the weakened pound.
And the Tory councillor says that while the region has many potential attractions new opportunities need to be exploited.
Clr Sims says: “It’s going to be a challenging year, but it’s not all doom and gloom.
“People will come to us if they can’t afford to go abroad.
“What we need to do is look beyond Last of the Summer Wine and look at the things we have, such as walking, reservoirs and fishing.
“We need to think about putting things into the infrastructure, maybe look at a Centre Parcs- style attraction like they have in Nottinghamshire. We’ve started getting more interest from America and while the pound is weak against the euro and dollar it has a benefit.
“We realise we’ve a big future in tourism and in Kirklees. We have everything here and we need to start pushing more.
“We’re now working with development agency Yorkshire Forward and we will be shouting for some money!”
Of an estimated 516,000 trips made to Kirklees last year 91% were made by domestic visitors and 9% by overseas visitors, according to figures released last month.
The overall value of tourism for Kirklees was estimated to be £385m, with 6,365 full-time jobs connected to tourism and an extra 2,309 part time and seasonal jobs.
Oakwell Hall and Country Park at Birstall and Last of the Summer Wine country are among the most visited attractions.
