Yorkshire checks-in with European Foursquare first
Story Published: 7 September 2010
Welcome to Yorkshire has become the first tourism agency in Europe to embrace the mobile internet phenomenon Foursquare by creating its own dedicated page.
Over 3million people now use Foursquare, with 18,000 people signing up every day and over 100 million venue check-ins having taken place according to the company's founder.
Welcome to Yorkshire sees www.foursquare.com/welcome2yorks as the perfect addition to the strong social media presence it already has on http://twitter.com/welcome2yorks, Facebook (http://bit.ly/yorksfb), Flickr (http://bit.ly/yorksflickr), and YouTube (http://bit.ly/yorksyoutube).
Kristal Ireland, Digital Marketing Manager for Welcome to Yorkshire, said: "A number of our team have been using Foursquare for a while and we felt now was the right time to embrace Foursquare and help users find out more about our great county in a fun, interactive way.
"I believe Foursquare can bring further benefits to Yorkshire's hundreds of millions of visitors and thousands of businesses and we will be engaging fully with users to make their experience a rewarding one."
Visitors to www.foursquare.com/welcome2yorks will find tips to places that have been crowd-sourced by Welcome to Yorkshire as they check-in around the county.
Users tips range from, 'Try the pan-fried pork fillet in piquant wine vinegar which they cooked on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word at Salvos,' to highlighting Aysgarth Falls as 'the location for the famous fight between Kevin Costner's Robin Hood and his friend Little John in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves.'
As well as being the first tourism agency in Europe to have branded Foursquare presence, Welcome to Yorkshire is only the 8th tourism agency in the world - and the first outside the US - to have a branded Foursquare homepage.
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Editors' Notes:
- Welcome to Yorkshire is the official tourism body for Yorkshire, working to grow the region's visitor economy.
- Welcome to Yorkshire is funded by Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency charged with improving the Yorkshire and Humber economy.
- Key facts include:
- Tourism in Yorkshire is worth £6.5 billion annually
- The region's industry employs a quarter of a million people
- There are 209 million visits to Yorkshire each year
Please take a look at www.yorkshire.com/mediacentre where you will find Welcome to Yorkshire news, feature suggestions, a free image bank and much more.
For further information please contact:
Andrew Denton - Press Officer
Email: adenton@yorkshire.com
Direct Line: 0113 322 3537
Mobile: 07855 812094
Beverley Richmond - Press Officer
Email: brichmond@yorkshire.com
Direct Line: 0113 322 3507
Mobile: 07769 257380