OVERSEAS holiday visits to Yorkshire rose by 37.7 per cent last summer.

Yorkshire welcomed 168,000 holiday visits during the months of July, August and September last summer - a faster rate of growth than summer holiday visits to London.

Overall, York was unsurprisingly the most visited city in Yorkshire on holiday visits.

During the summer months Yorkshire was most visited by Australian tourists, who made 27,000 trips to the region during July, August and September of 2013 and spent a total of £14 million during that time - a new summer record and nearly triple the £5 million spent during the same period in 2012.

The second largest group of visits came from the USA with 26,600 visits and there were 12,400 visits from France with spend of £5.4 million.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: "Yorkshire's profile has never been so high, we are riding a wave of worldwide acclaim and we fully expect an influx of international and domestic visitors to flock to Yorkshire this year and for many years to come as the legacy of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France is felt in our great county. Yorkshire is very much on the must visit list for many people around the world now and we cannot wait to welcome them."