Tourism group pledges Ilkley Literature Festival support (From Ilkley Gazette)

Tourism group pledges Ilkley Literature Festival support

1:00pm Friday 22nd February 2013 in Local news

The organisation that helped bring the Tour De France to Yorkshire has pledged to support Ilkley Literature Festival to make 2013 a bumper year for the county’s large number of festivals.

Tourism group Welcome To Yorkshire has announced it will support 100 festivals this year, allowing them to boost their profile, helping with PR and offering business support.

Local events that will benefit include Ilkley Literature Festival, this weekend’s Bradford Beer Festival, Saltaire Festival, Bradford Film Festival and Saltaire Arts Trail.

Yorkshire’s festivals are worth around £500m to the county’s economy, and account for 10 per cent of total visits.

The support will include details of each even included on the festival section of the Welcome to Yorkshire Website, which last year attracted 850,000 hits.

Chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, Gary Verity, said: “Festivals are big business to the county and we are working hard to help them flourish and grow.

“We are supporting a wide range of festivals across Yorkshire from the Three Peaks Race to the Leeds Waterfront Festival and the Grassington Festival to the Ilkley literature Festival.”