One of Yorkshire’s great strengths is its tourism offer. Therefore it is good to see both South and West Yorkshire being granted Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) status.

The new LVEP programme, developed by VisitEngland, will bring districts together, enable them to share ideas and resources as they collaborate to grow the tourist economy.

For example in South Yorkshire, the Mayoral Combined Authority, Sheffield City Council, Doncaster City Council, Rotherham Council and Barnsley Council will work together on shared priorities and targets. With the pressures on local authorities and the need to support the visitor economy, sharing resources and ideas can only be a good thing.

The tourism industry was brought to its knees by the pandemic and it is important that it not only recovers to where it was before but gets into a position where it can thrive for many years to come.

Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire, said: “Our new Local Visitor Economy Partnership, being developed with the support of Visit England, will give visitors from far and wide the chance to explore and experience South Yorkshire in all its glory.” PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe

The next few weeks will drive home the value of tourism to the region with school holidays now in full swing. It isn’t just about attracting visitors from outside of the county but also from within it too.

It is also vital that attractions remain affordable to enable young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to also have something to do during the school holidays.

A pan Yorkshire tourism body would still be better for the region. Yorkshire is stronger when it talks with a unified voice. And given the rich variety that it has to offer when it comes to tourism, that would be the best way to sell the region to visitors. But hopefully the LVEP status can show the value of greater collaboration.

Pan Yorkshire tourism partnership would be ideal but LVEPs are a positive step - The Yorkshire Post says