Future Tourism Conference brings hi-tech vision to 600-year-old York venue

Could cutting-edge technology revolutionise tourist businesses?

That’s one of the questions being discussed at The Future Tourism Experience conference which is held in York this month.

Organised by The Tourism Society Yorkshire the event takes place at the 14th century Bedern Hall on Friday September 14.

Key note speaker at the conference is Richard Bryan, managing director of York-based Qa Research who has been finding out the tourism sector’s experience of, and approach to virtual reality and augmented reality at visitor attractions around the country.

Herriot country

Ian Ashton, managing director of the World of James Herriot at Thirsk will provide the ‘Analogue Alternative’ as he explains the regeneration of the attraction since taking it into private ownership in 2012 and how personal connections and live experiences are helping the attraction to grown new audiences especially from overseas.

Paul Cook, of Planet Planit will share techniques to make the most of the online and analogue approaches to help make tourism offerings really stand out, and combines this with a whistle stop reminder of the data protection laws (GDPR) that needs to be entwined along the way.

Tourism Society Yorkshire Chapter chairman John Gallery said: “This conference is a timely opportunity for tourism businesses to learn from other’s experiences and examine their own ways of staying ahead as the fast pace of technology-based experiences grows.”

Bedern Hall in the centre of York is the venue for the conference and provides the historic backdrop of a tourist attraction that is also immersed in developing its ‘Medieval Meets Modern’ events programme that encourages organisations to use its high-speed broadband and other high-tech facilities within the medieval hall.