Visit York Tourism Conference 2026: Save The Date
Sponsored by LNER
The Visit York Tourism Conference will return at York St John University on 13th January 2026. We look forward to welcoming you, where you can explore the city's tourism priorities and opportunities and receive an overview of Make It York's plans for the year. The conference will be followed by a networking lunch and optional wordshop sessions in the afternoon.
More details will be shared soon. Keep an eye on our membership social channels for updates!
Not a Visit York member? Find out more here.
Revisit Visit York Tourism Conference 2025
Speakers of Visit York Tourism Conference 2025
Sarah Loftus
Managing Director, Make It York
Sarah is Managing Director of Make It York. Prior to this role she was Chief Executive for LincolnBIG, a not-for-profit place making organisation, tasked with ensuring Lincoln city centre was well maintained, welcoming, creatively animated and had great public spaces. She has over 25 years of experience of reducing inequalities and creating growth, having delivered several complex physical and revenue regeneration and town centre management projects. Sarah holds a MPhil in Town planning from University College London. To see Sarah's presentation, click here.
Stuart Paver
Chair, Make It York & Chair, Pavers
Stuart took up his role as Chairman of Pavers Holdings in 2023 having been Managing Director since 1999 and under his leadership the company has grown significantly to number 190 stores and employ approximately 1950 people in The United Kingdom whilst remaining faithful to its family business ethics. The Pavers Foundation was established in 2018 and to date it has awarded grants of over £2.3M including £425K in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. To see Stuart's presentation, click here.
Katerina Rysova
Senior Insights Manager & Interim Head of Research and Forecasting, VisitBritain
Katerina has 20 years’ experience in Research and Insight. The recent 3 years at VisitBritain and prior to that, she worked as an Insight Manager at Philip Morris International Headquarters in Switzerland. As a Senior Insight Manager, she has been focusing predominantly on domestic tourism insights, however, delivered presentations across both, domestic and inbound tourism using a range of data sources. To see Katerina's presentation, click here.
Alex Warner
Chief Executive, Great Scenic Journeys
Alex has 32 years’ experience in the transport industry, having held senior roles including on the board of train, bus, coach, and logistics companies up to and including at Managing Director and Chair level. For over 14 years, he has also been a columnist in the fortnightly trade press publication ‘Passenger Transport’ magazine, and he is a renowned thought leader and speaker on the conference circuit around customer experience. To see Alex's presentation, click here.
Host
Dr Brendan Paddison
As an urban geographer, Brendan's research interests include tourism and destination management, spatial justice, policy, and collaborative forms of destination governance and development. Brendan teaches across a range of Business and Management subject areas, including tourism, responsible business and politics and completed his PhD titled Governance and Community Advocacy in Tourism Development: An International Comparison.
Brendan leads the Visitor Economy and Experience research group at York St John, is co-chair of the Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI) and Chair of the York Tourism Advisory Board. He is Subject Editor: Tourism for the Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education and a member of the editorial boards for the Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism and the e-Review of Tourism Research journal.
