Yorkshire tourism campaign wins world award

Gary Verity, chief executive of the organisation, said Yorkshire was a world beater

For the second year running the tourist organisation for Yorkshire has won the best marketing campaign at an international travel event.

Welcome to Yorkshire was rewarded for its 2010 marketing campaign at the World Travel Awards in Doha, Qatar.

After the award Gary Verity, chief executive of the organisation, said: "Yorkshire is a world beater".

The organisation said the value of international trips taken in Yorkshire had gone up by 22% in 2010-11.

The figures came from the International Passenger Survey that records the number of people passing through the UK's main airports.

Global scale

The rising value of visits to Yorkshire compared with an increase of just 3% nationally, said the organisation.

Mr Verity added: "We are able to compete on a global scale with the best in the world."

The organisation won, in a field dominated by national tourist authorities, with a marketing campaign based on the slogan, "Welcome to a whole lot more going on".

Other finalists in the category included Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Egyptian Tourist Authority, Embatur Brazil, Incredible India, South Africa Tourism and Spanish Institute of Tourism.

According to the organisation tourism in Yorkshire is worth £7bn a year with 216 million visits annually, and the industry employs almost 250,000 workers.