Visitors to countryside splash out over £17bn

The figures, published by Natural England, show that nationally England’s farms, mountains, moorland and woodland all became more popular as places to go with urban parks becoming far less popular as destinations for visits.

Between March 2010 and February this year a total of 291 million people visited Yorkshire’s countryside, an increase of four million from the previous year.

Natural England published the information in its second ever Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment survey (MENE).

Its findings also showed more than 50 per cent of people claimed to visit the “natural environment” at least once a week.

Natural England chairman Poul Christensen hailed the survey as a groundbreaking study in England and said: “It reaches a huge number of people and that lets us build a really good picture of how people are using the outdoors.”

Natural England also published a separate package of information which showed the public to be largely positive about the current state of the country’s natural environment,

Just 15 per cent of the public said they regarded it as in a “poor” or “terrible” condition.

However, 42 per cent believe that biodiversity has declined in the last 10 years and 64 per cent believe the environment will be in a “slightly worse” or “much worse” state in 50 years.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon said: “Nature is a perfect antidote to the stress of our busy lives and this survey shows the extent of people’s passion for the world beyond their front door.

“In our recent Natural Environment White Paper we outlined how we intend to expand, improve and protect our valuable wildlife habitats – making us the first generation to leave the environment in a better condition than we found it.”

The MENE survey was based on interviews with some 46,000 people nationwide.