York’s tourist information centre is on the move – into the heart of the city.
Destination management organisation Make It York, including the Visit York tourism service, is relocating to 21 Parliament Street.
That’s the former home of Vision Optics, on the corner of Feasegate. The building is now being kitted out for its new tenants.
Make It York has been based at Museum Street for 12 years.
The tourist information centre is on the ground floor, with the offices above.
But since Covid and hybrid working, and with the recent loss of a number of staff, many of the desks have been unoccupied for some time.
Downsizing will also help to balance the books. As we reported earlier this week, Make It York is set to make a loss of £63,500 by March – and managing director Sarah Loftus told councillors a smaller office would reduce costs “dramatically”.
Parliament Street has higher footfall than Museum Street, so it is hoped more visitors and residents to utilise the visitor information centre, which has assisted over 150,000 people this year so far.
The move to Parliament Street later in the autumn will also bring Make It York’s two city centre offices closer together, with the Shambles Market team based at Silver Street.
And the new office is on the doorstep of Make It York’s biggest money-spinner of the year, St Nicholas Fair, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
Ms Loftus said: “This is an exciting new chapter for Make It York and our Visitor Information Centre.
“Our new home in Parliament Street is in a higher footfall area of the city centre, which we hope will encourage more visitors and residents to make the most of our brilliant and knowledgeable visitor information centre advisors.”
The Visit York information pod at York Station, opened earlier this year, will remain open and will extend its operating hours from November.
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