FOR years hoteliers and tourism officials have called for studies to determine whether York has too many hotels. They have also pressed for a strategy to address what has been dubbed “unsustainable development” in the sector.

Of late this debate has resurfaced, with politicians attacking one another through the letters page of this newspaper.

The upshot appears to be that we will indeed get a hotel strategy and City of York Council leader Coun James Alexander says it should be ready by March.

The reason it has taken time to come forward, he says, is because the new tourism strategy had to be taken into account.

Coun Alexander makes a good point. York is a major tourist destination and the city makes in excess of £400 million from visitors every year. The industry also supports some 20,000 jobs and care must be taken not to harm such an important contributor to the city’s economy.

The only way to ensure that is to have a strategy in place that can predict probable supply and demand with some degree of certainty. And with the economy coming out of recession, many of the arguments that have been voiced in recent years about operating in a “challenging climate” might need to be revisited.

We hope the strategy, when it is set in place, will take account of this, because competition is no bad thing. As Kate McMullen, head of Visit York, says, we must continually improve our total accommodation offer, ensuring visitors have a varied choice.

Good hotels – and York has many – will always do well if they provide the customer with what they want.