High flying businessman Gary Verity heads the Yorkshire’s tourism industry in a move aimed at increasing its profile across the world and boosting its value to the regional economy.
A dynamic and motivational leader Gary has an excellent track record in brand building, customer service and managing complex businesses with a national and international profile, and wide experience of multi-site (600+) retail outlets.
The visitor economy is currently worth £6.1 billion to Yorkshire, and provides jobs for 240,000 people. It is the sixth largest sector in the regional economy. Mr Verity and his team work with tourism businesses, local authorities, and other partners and aim grow the region’s visitor economy by £300 million pounds over the next three years.
Presentations where also given on this years 2 chosen charities.
'The Victoria Climbie Charitable Trust' - which has been supported over the last 3 years to build and equip a much needed school in Abobo in Ivory Coast in memory of Victoria Climbie. This year they are aiming to raise enough money to provide every child at the school with a new uniform. We need to raise about £1,000. Also in this World Cup year we want to help the school build a football pitch for use by the children and the local community.
'Real Aid supports agricultural projects in the Bumpe Chiefdom, Sierra Leone. This enables the local community to grow rice to feed their families. During 2010 we aim to help the community by reducing the spread of parasitic disease which unfortunately spreads through the soil to the field workers.
And finally the most memorable presentation came from the children at St Nicholas Primary School as they talked about the business operations, processes and procedures they used to turned £150 into £2000. What a fantastic achievement and a huge well done.












































