Leeds in West Yorkshire, England is a tourist destination.
In the 2017 Condé Nast Traveler survey of readers, Leeds rated 6th among The 15 Best Cities in the UK for visitors. [1] Lonely Planet named Leeds as one of the top 10 cities to visit in 2017. [2]
Leeds has many transport links by which tourists can arrive. The city is served by Leeds Bradford International Airport, which has direct links to most major British and European airports as well as several direct links further afield. Leeds railway station is one of the UK's principal railway stations and links to regional towns and cities, as well as many major cities. The cities main tourist information office is situated at the railway station. The nearest port is the Port of Hull, with passenger connections to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. Leeds is linked by motorways in all directions by the M1 (South), M62 (East and West) and the A1(M) (North and South). The city is linked by National Express and Megabus coaches all major UK cities.
Tourism in Leeds in 2017 was estimated to support over 20,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
In 2017 Leeds had 26.6 million day visitors, contributing £1.19bn to the economy, and received 29.01 million day and night visitors, bringing £1.75bn to the local economy. Between 2013 - 2017 the economic impact of tourism to the economy increased by 16.6%, with staying visitors increasing by 22.6%. Overall visitor numbers also increased by 6.3% between 2015 and 2016. [3]
Major national and regional attractions include the Royal Armouries, the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Harewood House, which was voted one of the best large visitor attractions in the Excellence in England Awards for Tourism 2003. [4] Leeds is also the only city outside London to have both its own opera and ballet companies – the Opera North and Northern Ballet Theatre. Leeds Civic Trust offers walking tours of the city. [5]
Readers of TripAdvisor rated the following as the top four things to do in Leeds: Roundhay Park, Royal Armouries Museum, City Varieties Music Hall, Abbey House Museum. Favourite architectural buildings were Leeds Minster, Harewood House, Thornton's Arcade and Leeds Civic Hall. [6]
Leeds is known for hosting sporting events, with international competitions being held in the city, including the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2014, Rugby World Cup 2015 and the ITU World Triathlon Series Leeds in 2016, 2017, 2018.
In 2019 Leeds is hosting several major international sporting events: The Cricket World Cup, the UCI World Championships, the ITU World Triathlon Series, Tour de Yorkshire, Third Specsavers Ashes Test Match and 2019 IFAF Women's European Championship.
Only ten minutes from the city centre, the Emerald Headingley Stadium is one of the biggest sporting stadiums in Leeds with a 22,000 capacity. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Leeds Rhinos and Yorkshire Carnegie and is currently undergoing a £40 million development of the North-South Stand, a facility that adjoins both the cricket and rugby grounds. Another sports stadium is Elland Road Football Stadium, the 40,000 capacity home of Leeds United.
Light Night is a fixture on the calendar, turning the city into an art installation.
Other festivals include Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds International Piano Competition, Leeds West Indian Carnival and Leeds Festival.
Hotels in Leeds city centre include Malmaison, DoubleTree by Hilton, Radisson Blu, 42 The Calls, Quebecs Hotel, Leeds, The Queens, Novotel or The Marriott.
Leeds has many popular pubs, bars and restaurants in the city centre. The historic Whitelock's Ale House on Briggate and the Adelphi public house on Hunslet Lane (adjacent to the Tetley's Brewery) are notable public houses. The range of restaurants and bars in Leeds covers all budget ranges and includes a diverse street food offer. [7]
Besides the city centre, many people visit Hyde Park and Headingley for the student sub culture and the interesting mix of pubs, cafés and bars. Chapel Allerton, Roundhay and Horsforth are popular due to the upmarket bars and restaurants in these areas. The market towns of Wetherby and Otley come under the City of Leeds and are also both popular with day tourists, Wetherby being particularly busy after a meeting at Wetherby Racecourse.
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the reorganisation of the Local Government Act 1972 which saw it formed from a large part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The county had a recorded population of 2.3 million in the 2011 Census making it the fourth-largest by population in England. The largest towns are Huddersfield, Castleford, Batley, Bingley, Pontefract, Halifax, Brighouse, Keighley, Pudsey, Morley and Dewsbury. The three cities of West Yorkshire are Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield.
Wetherby is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately 12 miles from Leeds City Centre, 12 mi (19 km) from York and 8 mi (13 km) from Harrogate. The town stands on the River Wharfe, and for centuries has been a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road midway between London and Edinburgh.
Kirkstall is a north-western suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, on the eastern side of the River Aire. The area sits in the Kirkstall ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds West parliamentary constituency, represented by Rachel Reeves. The population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 21,709.
Roundhay is a large suburb in north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Roundhay had a population of 22,546 in 2011.
West Park is a suburb of north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, north of Headingley. It is a mixed area of private suburban housing and suburban council estates. The name derives from its main park containing playing fields together with a conservation area of grassy meadow ending in woodland. The largest housing estate in West Park is Moor Grange.
Holt Park is a medium-sized low-rise 1970s housing estate in the northwest suburbs of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is approximately 6 miles (10 km) from Leeds city centre situated between Tinshill, Cookridge and Adel, and is at the edge of the Leeds urban fringe, bordering the green belt which makes up two thirds of the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds. The nearby Tinshill BT Tower dominates the skyline.
Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of local government services in Leeds. It has the second-largest population of any council in the United Kingdom with approximately 800,000 inhabitants living within its area; only Birmingham City Council has more. Since 1 April 2014, it has been a constituent council of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Headingley railway station is off Kirkstall Lane in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, on the Harrogate Line, 3 miles (5 km) north west of Leeds. The station was opened in 1849 by the Leeds & Thirsk Railway, later part of the Leeds Northern Railway to Northallerton.
The Otley Run is a pub crawl in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The route shares much in common with the Headingley Mile but usually incorporating more pubs on the A660 road, typically those towards Leeds City Centre.
The economy of Leeds is the most diverse economy of all the UK's main employment centres and has seen the fastest rate of private-sector jobs growth of any UK city and has the highest ratio of public to private sector jobs of all the UK's Core Cities. Leeds has the third-largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is the largest legal and financial centre in England outside of London, and third largest in the UK after Edinburgh, and in 2011 its financial and insurance services industry was worth £2.1 billion. with more than 30 national and international banks located in the city. Leeds is also the UK's third largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, Leeds manufacturing firms account for 8.8% of total employment in the city. The largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. Leeds is also ranked as a gamma world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network; Over the next ten years, the economy is forecast to grow by 25% with financial and business services set to generate over half of GVA growth over that period with Finance and business services accounting for 38% of total output. Other key sectors include retail, leisure and the visitor economy, construction, manufacturing and the creative and digital industries.
Shadwell is a village and civil parish in north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The village is 6 miles (9.7 km) to the north east of Leeds city centre.
Collingham is a village and civil parish 2 miles (3 km) south-west of Wetherby in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 2,991.
Leeds is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement in England, after London and Birmingham.
The architecture of Leeds, a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, encompasses a wide range of architectural styles and notable buildings. As with most northern industrial centres, much of Leeds' prominent architecture is of the Victorian era. However, the City of Leeds also contains buildings from as early as the Middle Ages such as Kirkstall Abbey, one of Britain's best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries, as well as examples of 20th century industrial architecture, particularly in the districts of Hunslet and Holbeck.
The Golden Triangle is a term commonly used by estate agents for the area of West and North Yorkshire lying between Harrogate, York and North Leeds. Lying in the centre of this area is Wetherby on the fringes of West Yorkshire. Despite mainly being an affluent area the area does consist of some deprived areas such as Swarcliffe, Cranmer Bank and Hallfields. The most expensive street in the golden triangle is Fulwith Mill Lane on the South Side of Harrogate, where the average house price is £1.7 million.
Tourism in Yorkshire generates more than £9 billion per annum and supporting almost 225,000 jobs. During 2007 recorded 92 million day visitors and 12.8 million that stayed at least one night in the region. By 2015, the value of tourism was in excess of £7 billion. Yorkshire is around 6,000 square miles (16,000 km2) in size. The official tourism body for the region is Welcome to Yorkshire.
Leeds is known for its culture in the fields of art, architecture, music, sport, film and television. As the largest city in Yorkshire, Leeds is a centre of Yorkshire's contemporary culture and is the base for Yorkshire's television and regional newspapers.
John Michael Procter is the current Chair of the Royal Armouries and a former Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP). His term as Chair ends on 1 November 2023.
Leeds travel guide from Wikivoyage| Nations and regions |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Companies |
| ||||||||||
| Organisations | |||||||||||
| Industry bodies | |||||||||||
| Tourist destinations |
| ||||||||||
