Tourism campaign to woo young

The announcement came from Aviva Pearson, chief executive for both the Yorkshire Dales and Harrogate Tourism Partnership and the Moors and Coast Tourism Partnership, as she spelt out the strategy for attracting visitors over the next two years.

Mrs Pearson said attracting the younger generations to areas of outstanding beauty alongside maintaining their traditional visitor base is key to boosting the already buoyant tourism trade in North Yorkshire.

She said: "We have this great basis of people that just keep coming back but we want to go after new blood as well.

"We are wanting to attract a large share of the under-35s.

"People have these preconceptions about what there is to do here but we want to break these down.

"We want to target younger people for different types of getaways and through surveys we have done we have seen new people coming here who want to be at the forefront of new trends.

"They are style hounds wanting adrenaline packed holidays.

"With places like Harrogate we are seeing there is great shopping and nights out and it is perfect for culture vultures who want really chic days out.

"It is a huge area that we cover and we really do have everything for everyone."

Mrs Pearson's comments are backed up by new figures which show 65 per cent of recent visitors to the area were under 55, and 64 per cent came from Yorkshire and the North East, with four per cent from London and five per cent from the South East.

The figures also show that the Moors and Coast partnership area alone, which covers Ryedale, Scarborough, Hambleton and the North York Moors National Park, currently earns a total of 649m from visitors.

Around 2.6 million people stayed overnight, alongside eight million day visitors, helping support some 18,000 jobs in the area.

Mrs Pearson said that with the new strategy, she was confident a target to increase first time visitors by three per cent and income from tourists by five per cent in the next three years could be surpassed.

It is also hoped the increased tourist industry will provide new high quality jobs throughout North Yorkshire.

Among the key attractions hoping to bring younger people to the region this year is the World Mountain Bike Cup, held on April 24 and 25 at Dalby Forest, a 3440 acre site near Pickering.

The event, which features 500 bikers from 24 nations, is expected to attract around 10,000 visitors.

It will also be broadcast worldwide, with the media using Dalby's 2.3m eco-friendly visitor centre as their base of operations.

There is also a Bram Stoker International Film Festival being held in Whitby later in the year.

People working in the North Yorkshire tourism industry are welcoming the push to attract younger visitors.

Neville Hobbs, 57, who owns the Old Vicarage at Toftly View B&B, in Newton upon Rawcliffe in the North York Moors National Park, said: "We are quite a traditional place and we only have one pub in the village which might not be enough for the culture vultures.

"But we are seeing some younger guests staying here.

"I've never heard of a style hound before, but we welcome anything that brings new arrivals to the area."

The new tourism strategy will see an extensive digital advertising campaign used alongside 150,000 holiday guides already sent out to potential visitors this year.