Yorkshire launches £2m tourism campaign

The scheme aims to attract short-break visitors

A major advertising campaign to attract more tourists to Yorkshire is being launched.

The regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, believes the £2m television and magazine campaign will generate millions of pounds in extra business and help to save jobs.

Advertisements will specifically target people living in the south of England and Midlands with the campaign being run by a southern public relations firm.

Yorkshire Forward's first project in 2001 generated an extra £18m for the local economy and safeguarded 800 jobs.

The campaign, which aims to reach at least seven million people, is expected to run until April.

Theresa Lindsay, of Yorkshire Forward, said: "Our aim is to encourage day trips and short breaks to Britain's biggest county and put Yorkshire firmly on the map for the 2003 holiday season."

To coincide with the project Great North Eastern Railways is naming one of its trains Yorkshire Forward at a ceremony in Leeds.