Otley Town Council held a Tourism Conference on 30th March 2016 to discuss the development of a future tourism strategy for the town.
The conference was held at the Black Horse Hotel and was attended by nearly 60 delegates from local businesses and organisations. Sir Gary Verity of Welcome to Yorkshire was the keynote speaker and he was accompanied by presentations from Greg Mulholland MP, Dr Simon Woodward of Leeds Beckett University and Tim Barber from Lightfish Consultancy. Cllr Ray Georgeson MBE, Chair of Otley Town Council, facilitated the day and the afternoon session involved syndicate group working on key target sectors including Cycling, Walking, Dining & Drinking and Day Trippers & Shoppers.
The feedback from the delegates was very positive with many volunteering to attend follow up meetings and workshops. The Council will now produce an action plan for the next stages and will ensure that the contributions from the day are shared and developed further with key organisations such as Welcome to Yorkshire, Visit Leeds, Otley BID, Otley Town Partnership and Otley Chamber of Trade in order to develop a tourism strategy for the Town.
The Council would like to thank all participants for their contributions.
We would also like to thank the staff at the Black Horse Hotel for their excellent customer service and hosting of the event.