Hospitality is at the heart of our region with most of us using it each day. As a sector that has had, and continues to have, huge challenges, hospitality has shown its resilience, but its survival and growth is hugely important and underpins a significant part of the region’s economy.

The commercial impact of hospitality is huge and far wider than any individual business – consider the jobs created, the supply chain and the supporting services. Due to our connections with businesses across Yorkshire, we must look forward and observe how society is changing and where hospitality fits in. How it embraces technology, how it understands and reduces its impact on the environment, how it looks after those that work in it, and what the future might look like.

Since its founding, The West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce has been vital in providing business support. Over the years, we have been the champion to many sectors within our region, supporting them when they needed our help, lobbying for reform and fairness, and raising their profile. The York & North Yorkshire Chamber has an outstanding history of leading this support for businesses across the region and is proud to put its weight and voice behind hospitality. In recognition of the pivotal role played by the hospitality industry in the York & North Yorkshire region, the Chamber decided to establish a York & North Yorkshire Hospitality Forum, to represent and support the industry locally, nationally and internationally.

The Hospitality Forum has been established to support and help businesses tackle some of the ongoing issues that they face. It’s led by a steering group which exists to discuss, understand and learn what can be done to help with some of these challenges. The main purpose of the York & North Yorkshire Hospitality Forum is to simply give hospitality a voice. These events are intended to draw the hospitality sector together in order to initiate such changes that are needed.