Great Potential and The BeeArc Project

The BeeArc came to our attention when we were invited to tender for a feasibility study for the project and learned about James Fearnley's passionate plans for the BeeArc.

We were delighted to be invited to get involved and quickly became enthused about the BeeArc project. It is a combination of a tourism sector visitor attraction project with products and services with which we are very familiar and being in the National Park where we have worked with many other businesses previously. It also aroused our own curiosity and interest in sustainable tourism initiatives which we believe are essential for the long-term benefit of places like Goathland.

To say that we have become involved is an understatement, as we are now advocates for the BeeArc as it will bring renewed interest in the location whilst also educating and informing a wider public of the benefits to be learned from the bee community. Its scientific research work is of worldwide importance and will create a new reputation for the village as a world research centre for the study of bees.

As destination marketing specialists we know that there is a need to manage the expectations of visitors whilst balancing it with the needs of local people.

Goathland has enjoyed success as a visitor destination through the Heartbeat TV series and the development of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway as well as being a base for many visitors to the National Park and the Yorkshire coast.

The BeeArc will be a natural asset to the village and the National Park. It will attract a new audience that will discover Goathland in different and more sustainable ways. It will be something that Goathland should be proud to be associated with.

Great Potential

Qualifications, experience, expertise and skills

John Gallery: John loves transforming hospitality and tourism businesses for the better. He does that with new ways to look at problems, and out-of-the-ordinary ideas you can implement without costing the earth. John has re-skilled himself countless times and it’s this eclectic bag of tools which he puts at your disposal providing Marketing and Management Consultancy, Mentoring, Research, Sales, & Public Relations.

Who is John?

25 years as a four-star hotel general manager, 12 years at the helm of York’s popular Marriott hotel taught John many valuable lessons. Not just how to run a highly successful hotel business, but how to stand out in the marketplace, spread your message effectively and recruit new custom. A voluntary tour guide in historic York, John is well-rehearsed in bringing ideas to life for newcomers. John was chairman of VisitYork for four years, founded LateMeetings.com in 2005, the first online booking portal for meetings and events, sold it to Expotel (now Capita) in 2010 and later established moregiving.co.uk, a corporate charity fundraising platform. A Fellow of the Tourism Society, its Yorkshire chairman, career-long member of the Institute of Hospitality, chairman of research and market intelligence at UK Events Partnership prior to which, he was a council member of the Meetings Industry Association. John’s work in destinations includes managing Conference Guernsey (2003- 2005), PR and Marketing for Tees Valley Tourism (2005-2007), the research study of future visitor accommodation needs for City of York (2014-15). John assisted Lincolnshire’s South Kesteven tourism activities (2001-2003) and again its Aviation Heritage initiative in 2017. Since 2012 John has been involved at the World of James Herriot in Thirsk, becoming marketing director in January 2021, is Herriot Country Tourism Group chairman and has been a director of the medieval Bedern Hall, York since 2016.

Clive Rowe-Evans

Clive has spent his working life fulfilling his passion for the hotel and tourism industry. As a boy he was bitten by the bug at his grandparent’s small hotel in mid Wales, he became the youngest hotel manager in the UK, and subsequently being excited by offering high quality service held GM’s positions in large City hotels before taking on the role as Operations Director for a multinational catering company.

Since moving to Yorkshire in 1999 he took on the role of Managing Director of Methodist Holiday Hotels Ltd. taking the company to one of strong profitability. Over these years Clive fell in love with Yorkshire, the amazing coastline, stunning views, and the wonderful variety of resorts and quaint villages. During this time Clive has met and helped many independent hoteliers and accommodation providers and is passionate about the need to market this area in a way that is not hidebound by local authority boundaries.

Clive has chaired the Moors and Coast Tourism Partnership and the Welcome to Yorkshire Coast Tourism Advisory Board; currently he chairs the Yorkshire Coast Business Improvement District Company.

Since 2012 Clive has worked with John Gallery as an associate and director of Great Potential Ltd., a consultancy that offers both marketing and operational support to the hotel and leisure industry. In particular he has developed a ‘Forensic Friend’ project that is a strategic business review; it gets under the skin of the business giving a forensic assessment of all aspects of the business and highlights weaknesses particularly at operational level and proposes and supports the implementation of remedies.