Who’s who in tourism

If you are a tourism-related business within or near the Yorkshire Dales National Park, a number of organisations work together to promote the area, provide business support, and manage the visitor economy. This page outlines how tourism is structured locally and regionally, and where to find further information and support.

National level

Visit Britain/Visit England together, are jointly the national tourism agency. VisitEngland (VE) is the national tourist board for England, responsible for marketing England to domestic and established overseas markets and for improving England’s tourism product. Visit Britain markets Britain overseas to drive growth in international leisure and business tourism. Both these organisations are not membership organisations and mainly work directly with destination management organisations.

Regional and local level

Tourism within and around the Yorkshire Dales is supported by three Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs), which coordinate marketing, visitor information, and industry support across the counties. LVEPs are part of a new national framework introduced by VisitEngland to create a more consistent and high-quality structure for managing tourism across England.

Their purpose is to:

• Provide a clearer structure for national funding, marketing, and training support.
• Strengthen collaboration between local authorities, tourism bodies, and VisitEngland.
• Ensure tourism planning aligns with broader economic development, skills, and sustainability goals.

What this means in the Yorkshire Dales National Park

The Councils covering the area of the National Park include North Yorkshire Council, Westmorland and Furness Council and Lancaster City Council. These councils provide local business advice, access to grants, training opportunities, and economic development support for tourism enterprises operating in their areas.

• North Yorkshire Council works closely with Visit North Yorkshire, as part of the York & North Yorkshire LVEP.
• Westmorland and Furness Council works with Visit Lake District, Cumbria, a brand run by the Cumbria Tourism LVEP.
• Lancaster City Council and the emerging Lancashire Combined Authority work with Visit Lancashire and contribute through the Marketing Lancashire LVEP.

All three councils participate in an LVEP, even though they do not run them directly.

How the Yorkshire Dales National Park fits into this structure

Much of the work of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is linked to tourism and visitor management. The Authority provides car parks, toilets, runs four National Park Visitor Centres and maintains the rights of way network in the National Park to support the visitor experience.

The National Park’s tourism programme includes: co-ordination of the Yorkshire Dales Tourism Partnership, monitoring of tourism data, working with individual businesses, and the provision of information for visitors to enable to plan their trip.

The LVEPS in our area are:

Visit North Yorkshire and Make it York & City of York Council, supported by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, form the York and North Yorkshire Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP).