EATING and drinking is the most popular activity for visitors to York as they increase their daily spend according to the latest Visit York survey.

The organisation’s annual visitor survey, which questioned more than one thousand people throughout 2012, saw average spend per day increase from £32.95 in 2011 to £34.52.

However spend on overnight visits was down from £80.36 to £79.65, as the average length of stay remained at 3.3 nights.

Overseas visitors stayed longer with an average 4.1 nights, and also spent 21 per cent more per day than UK visitors.

From January to December 2012, 2.3 million visits were made to the city’s largest eight visitor attractions.

This was a drop of 200,000 visitors from 2011, although early figures show a recovery is already being made with visit in 2013 up year on year by 16 per cent.

Activities, ranked in order of popularity, were eating and drinking, visiting attractions, enjoying the ambience and shopping.

The survey revealed more than three quarters of visitors said they would be likely to return to York within the next two years and 99 per cent said they would recommend a visit to friends and family.

Kate McMullen, head of Visit York said: “Overall, last year was a good year. Average room occupancy exceeded 80 per cent for the first time in a number of years and York also continued to have strong appeal overseas.

“While visits to attractions dipped slightly last summer, this is now back on track with robust figures so far for 2013.

“We’re delighted with the results of our annual visitor survey and will use this for our planning for 2014 and beyond.”

The survey showed that for the first time the 16-34 age group overtook visitors aged 45 to 54.

The 45-54 age bracket makes up 22 per cent of all visits while those aged 16-34 made up 23 per cent of all visits, up from 17 per cent in 2011.

Annual average room occupancy grew from 79 per cent in 2011 to 80.1 per cent in 2012 and peaked in September, boosted by the Festival of Food and Drink to 88.5 per cent.

Annual average room rates also grew last year to £79.95, one per cent higher than in 2011.

The ‘York Visitor Survey 2012/13’ was supported by tourism students from York St John University and staff from York’s visitor attractions.