PLANS for a balloon festival in York sit alongside hopes to bring an exact replica of Shakespeare’s Globe to the city in the latest proposals to promote York’s reputation as a leading destination for business, culture and tourism.

An audience of more than 300 business and tourism leaders from York gathered yesterday to hear the latest work being undertaken by the city’s “destination management organisation” Make it York as it embarks upon its third year in operation.

Describing the next 12 to 18 months as a “seminal time for the city” Make it York’s managing directer Steve Brown said year three needs to see yet more ambition to ensure York’s reputation as a world class destination continues to flourish and positions the city a step ahead of its competitors.

Taking charge of business support, tourism and culture in the city, Make it York counts a number of successes in its first two years, including support for the tourism sector in the wake of the 2015 floods, new festivals such as the York Easter Festival and the Ice Trail, as well as new events such as the York Culture Awards.

Supporting 382 business and helping 81 start ups, Make it York also took charge of a number of existing events including Illuminating York and Venturefest.

The launch of a new crowdfunding platform to support community projects saw £59,000 generated, but reached a “disappointing conclusion” as “momentum was lost”, said Mr Brown, who pledged to continue the project’s drive going forward.

Yesterday’s guests also heard how over the last year, the city’s conference brand Visityork4meetings has generated more than £2 million of conference and event enquiries for the city, converting £600,000 worth into bookings.

Chairwoman of Make It York, Jane Lady Gibson, said: “We have had a very focused plan of activity to grow the economy, delivering on a variety of projects to increase inward investment, support the agri-food sector and launching a major tourism campaign following the Boxing Day flooding.

“Businesses from right across the city and beyond have worked tirelessly with us to support projects which are now paying dividends across a whole range of sectors.”

As well as reflecting on recent performances, Make it York revealed a number of new projects in the pipeline, including ambitions to bring a Balloon Fiesta to York this Autumn, an event which would see up to 50 hot air balloons filling the skies above York racecourse and plans to help Lunchbox Theatrical Productions to bring an exact replica of Shakespeare’s Globe to the city next summer.

A main focus going forward for Make it York is to support the York Mediale, the city’s new International Media Arts Festival, planned for October 2018, which has promised to engage more than 100,000 people, and is designed to capitalise on the city’s UNESCO City of Media Arts status.

York Mediale, a biennial festival, will be developed by creative director, Tom Higham, through a new community interest company, working closely with the York Guild of Media Arts and in partnership with a range of organisations across York, the UK and internationally.

Speaking at yesterday’s event, Mr Higham, said: “York Mediale is about grasping this opportunity that UNESCO status offers for York and showcasing York’s creative talent in areas such as digital art, gaming, film and computer animation. It’s a chance to develop a world class international media arts festival for York.”

On the business front, a new Business Ambassador Programme has been launched in a bid to harness the skills and influence of 50 of the city’s senior business executives. The scheme encourages York’s top entrepreneurs to promote the city for inward investment and relocation.

Geoff Davidson, director at Arup, one of the first ambassadors to have brought in a lead after referring a business with 20 staff looking to relocate to Make it York, said: “Having an office in York brings great resource and opportunity to Arup. I am proud to lead our presence here and can testify to the city’s attraction as a place to do business.

“I am looking forward to acting as an ambassador for the city and hope to contribute further to the wider success of York.”

On the tourism front a new website will be launched in the Autumn, delivered by digital agency, New Mind, who have been appointed to deliver a world class website for the 21st century, building on the million plus unique users already visiting Visityork.org.

Mr Brown said: “With competition from across the globe, Make It York will this year be investing to ensure York has one of the best tourism websites in the country. Fully responsive, visityork.org will target local, national and international visitors, with a new mobile first experience. It will lead on visual content through impactful media, including film and new personal itinerary building options.”

Sally Greenaway, head of Visit York, a part of Make It York, added: “61 per cent of visitors are now searching for information on their mobile devices. We need to ensure York’s tourism website is slick, efficient and quite simply world class.

“We are excited about this step change to provide a first class digital experience for every single visitor, for today and the future.”

Internationally, tourism marketing activity will be focussed at audiences in the United States, Europe and China and early discussions with Hainan Airlines could see an Expo for York in Beijing early next year.

The conference heard how Make it York’s science division, Science City York has been busy supporting three key networks, Bioscience, Creative and IT/Digital, as well as building a new Agri-food network, with a brand new £1.7 million business support programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund.