Exclusive: Minister in charge of tourism spending cuts planning family trip to Disneyland

Tourism Minister and Weston-super-Mare MP John Penrose has been in Yorkshire for two days as part of a national fact-finding trip for a report, due to be presented in the autumn, on a new tourism blitz for Britain.

The Tories have announced plans for a 1bn marketing drive to woo foreign visitors to Britain for the 2012 Olympics, in a bid to create a "permanent tourism legacy" for the whole country.

The combination of the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in the same year offer a "priceless opportunity" to attract visitors to the UK, according to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Mr Penrose said last night that the message he would be taking back to London about Yorkshire was that "everything is here" that visitors could want.

However, the region was not included in his own holiday plans made before his appointment – when he was having to spend long periods away from his family on the election trail.

He added: "I have already been with my family to Cornwall. I have two daughters and during the elections, because I was going to be away a lot, I promised to take them to Euro Disney.

"I haven't got the heart now to say we're not going. So that's a campaign promise I do have to keep."

Mr Penrose's strategy comes against a background of spending cuts. York Minster will no longer be receiving 1m towards the restoration of its medieval Great East Window after Yorkshire Forward had its budget slashed.

The agency has also cut a 5m grant towards a 21m revamp of the Great Hall at York's National Railway Museum.

But yesterday Mr Penrose said he was returning to London upbeat and very impressed with the way Welcome to Yorkshire marketed the region "without wasting a penny", using local attractions as shareholders.

He added: "I think Yorkshire has a lot to teach the rest of Britain. Everything is here."