Newly launched B2B travel specialist Real Yorkshire DMC has secured funding from the Discover England Fund to develop luxury, fully-escorted Yorkshire tours via the travel trade in North America and other key international markets.
Director and Co-Founder Tim Barber is an official Yorkshire Blue Badge Guide and owner of Tim Barber’s Real Yorkshire Tours, which offers luxury private day tours. Tim is a historian and storyteller whose mission is to expose his clients – who increasingly come from North America – to ‘the proper Yorkshire’ and getting under the skin of the region’s Roman and Viking heritage, Norman castles, Tudor houses, stately homes, medieval abbeys, Jurassic coastline, national parks, TV locations, film sets and famous Yorkshire folk.
Real Yorkshire DMC will work closely with a number of other local businesses to create specialist interest tours of Yorkshire including guided culinary tours and ale and gin trails in the region.
The packaged tours, all of which are designed to showcase the best of Yorkshire, will be sold internationally via the travel trade, rather than direct to consumers. The company will also benefit from the global travel marketing experience of Real Yorkshire DMC’s Co-Founder Lyndsey Thomas, who is also owner of Leeds-based tourism marketing agency All About the Story.
With over 15 years experience managing tourism product development strategy for high-profile tourism clients including ILoveNY, Hawaii Tourism, Ontario Tourism and Yosemite National Park, Lyndsey is excited to bring her tourism experience to her home county.
Lyndsey said, “My extensive tourism sector experience, specifically in tourism product development and marketing, and Tim’s incredible knowledge of Yorkshire’ history and geography along with his Blue Badge Guide status is a winning combination and we are over the moon to have secured this grant which will allow us to take our tours to key international markets.
“Our target markets for Year One are the USA, Canada and Australia with a strong focus on the silver pound segment first and foremost, followed by the high earning family market.
“Our end users, whom we’ll reach through the travel trade in each country, are those international visitors who don’t want the hassle of researching and booking many components to create their trip, but want a company with the inside knowledge needed to put an itinerary together on their behalf.”
Chief Executive of VisitEngland, Sally Balcombe, said, “The calibre of submissions to the Discover England Fund reflects the innovation in product development thriving across the country’s tourism landscape. The successful projects will boost international and domestic visitor growth creating a step-change in the industry and spreading the economic benefits of tourism across England.
“Real Yorkshire DMC’s experience-driven itineraries are packed with the county’s iconic places of interest. With an official Blue Badge Tour Guide leading the tours, international visitors can explore some of England’s truly magnificent history and heritage.”
Sir Gary Verity DL, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said, “Yorkshire had a record 2017 for overseas visitors and all the signs are that 2018 is set to be another bumper year for inbound visitors, with tourists already hailing from Australia, Singapore, Brazil and Canada to name but a few. It’s great news that Real Yorkshire DMC has received funding from the Discover England Fund to develop these new and exciting packages holidays to Yorkshire to keep attracting those overseas visitors.”
