TOURISM businesses in York need to be ready to welcome the "digital visitor" as the industry adapts to take advantage of advances in technology.

The "visitor of the future" was debated by business owners in York yesterday as part of Visit York's annual conference.

Themed ‘Evolving York’, the conference shone the spotlight on emerging trends in tourism and future-proofing businesses and attractions as well hearing how the city’s assets will be marketed world-wide this year.

Part of the event included a Q&A panel, hosted by BBC Look North Presenter Phil Bodmer, with panelists Tom Pearcy owner of York Maze, Martin Witts founder of Great Yorkshire Fringe, Reyahn King chief executive of York Museums Trust, and Graham Usher general manager of Monk Bar Hotel and chairman of York Hoteliers.

The panel debated changes to the tourism industry and how businesses are adapting in order to evolve.

Mr Usher said: "Social media is massive now. We had a competition online which reached 126,000 people in just five days. The potential reach is huge.

"There's so many mediums to manage now as people look to share their lives. We live by pictures and by imagery. As a business we want to have a product that people want to be part of and want to share."

Mr Pearcy, owner of York Maze, said: "We are getting to the point now where we have families on a night sitting in a living room with all four people looking at separate screens. I think its really important now to create shareable experiences so families can do things together."

Ms King, chief executive of York Museums Trust, said it's not just about relying on tourists to share experiences in York.

She said: "We are a little bit comfortable about the fact we are a tourist city but we have to get every single resident in York talking about how great the city is. We need to get a lot of people to shout out about how great we are, we need residents to enjoy their visits to our sits and share them."

Around 200 tourism industry representatives attending the annual conference at York Racecourse yesterday, which featured headline speaker Martin Green, chief executive of Hull UK City of Culture.

In her opening speech Katie McMullen, head of consumer products and marketing at Make It York, parent company of Visit York, said: "We find ourselves at a time where the marketing, promotion and visitor experience in York is even more important than usual and we are determined that York’s tourism businesses are given every support in promoting our superb destination.

"2015 was eventful in many ways, but 2016 has some very significant opportunities for all of us."