Visitor tally soars at Yorkshire's tourism hotspots

Between 63 and 65 per cent of garden, heritage and smaller attractions saw an increase in visitors between June and August 2010, compared to the same period last year.

The chief executive of tourist board Welcome to Yorkshire, Gary

Verity, said: "The message we are getting from attractions across Yorkshire is that it has been another good year in terms of visitor numbers.

"The figures certainly bear this out. Last year was somewhat of a record-breaking year but the excellent news is that we are still witnessing an increase, which is great for our partners who are striving hard in the economic climate to ensure our visitors keep returning."

Tourism is worth 6.5bn annually to Yorkshire. The positive results for Yorkshire's economy come in advance of Monday's White Rose Awards, where the best of the region's tourism talent will be celebrated at a ceremony in Harrogate.

The White Rose Awards 2010, organised by Welcome to Yorkshire, is Britain's biggest tourism awards ceremony, with 90 finalists and 16 categories – including Yorkshire Pub of the Year, Business Tourism Award and Visitor Information Award.

Previous winners include Sheffield City Hall, the Yorkshire Waterways Museum in Goole, Crown Spa Hotel in Scarborough, Green's Restaurant in Whitby, Ripley Castle and the National Railway Museum in York.

The Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate is one attraction that has seen soaring visitor numbers. It benefited from bad weather at the start of the year, when many other tourist attractions were struggling.

The gallery's visitor figures were 24 per cent higher than last year in January and 14 per cent higher in February. It also had a good summer.

Hull Maritime Museum also performed well, with visitor numbers up 61 per cent in August on last year, and Sheffield's Botanical Gardens was up an average of 23 per cent in June to August compared to 2009.

n Welcome to Yorkshire is taking on the crme de la crme of world travel after being shortlisted for the World's Leading Tourist Board in the World Travel Awards.

By visiting www.yorkshire.com/vote you can cast your vote for Welcome to Yorkshire in the tourist board category and the World's Leading Marketing Campaign.

Voting closes on October 8.