Welcome to Yorkshire seals £10m funding
Tourist board Welcome to Yorkshire says it will be able to continue investing in marketing after securing £10m funding for the next year.
The backing from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward safeguards Welcome to Yorkshire's future - until 2012 at least - and means it can continue to invest in marketing campaigns and events to raise the region's profile.
The news will come as a boost to the tourism agency, given that its funding has been in doubt since the government announced last year that it was winding down backer Yorkshire Forward and its fellow RDAs.
Funding will now continue until Yorkshire Forward closes in March 2012, at which point Welcome to Yorkshire will need to find a new model to continue.
It secured the investment for this year after helping the county's tourism industry grow from £5.9bn to £7bn in the two years since its launch, creating 4000 new jobs.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: "We have already seen the impact of investment in high profile marketing, both in terms of increased visitors to the county and in changing perceptions of Yorkshire as a place to visit, work or invest in.
"Visits to Yorkshire are up 22% since Welcome to Yorkshire was launched. For every £1 invested by Yorkshire Forward in the industry it has delivered £40 back into the Yorkshire economy."
Welcome to Yorkshire has for the last two years worked with McCann Erickson Manchester on its marketing campaigns, with Brilliant Media handling media buying for its major ad campaign last year.