YORK racecourse will today (Wednesday, January 17) welcome 300 delegates from the region’s tourism industry as plans are revealed to build on the city’s successes in 2017.

At its annual tourism conference, Visit York will today report that last year saw the second highest ever number of visits to attractions in the city.

A total of 3.1 million visits were made, with the reopened JORVIK Viking Centre alone welcoming an additional 328,000 visitors, taking the total year on year gain to 17 per cent.

York also enjoyed its most successful St Nicholas Fair in December, during which time footfall in Parliament Street exceeded 1 million for the first time ever and footfall was up five per cent on 2016.

Another record broken was at York Pass, the city sightseeing pass, which had its best year yet for sales as 94,000 visits were made to attractions with a York Pass in 2017, marking a 55 per cent year on year increase.

As well as reporting on the successes of 2017 the conference will outline plans for tourism in the city in 2018, including the launch of a new digital marketing campaign in March called “Only in York”, which aims to highlight what makes York different.

Sally Greenaway, head of Visit York, said: “We’re delighted 2017 was a brilliant year for tourism.

“Looking ahead, harnessing new technologies and ensuring our digital marketing is pin sharp and focussed is a key priority. This year we have a stronger programme of festivals and events than ever before and we’ll be making sure we maximise this potential to help reach our ambition of creating a £1 billion tourism sector by 2024.”

Themed, ‘Tourism Marketing in the Digital Age’, and compered by BBC Presenter Clare Frisby, conference delegates will hear from expert speakers and hear the latest tourism figures for hotel occupancy for 2017, which shows hotel room occupancy in York was up by 1.4 per cent, with the average occupancy at 79 per cent. Average room rates were also up by 2.4 per cent and reached £97.

Visit York says 2018’s festival line up will be the “best yet” with the Balloon Fiesta, Europe’s first pop-up Shakespearean Theatre, Bloom! celebrating the world’s oldest Florists’ Society and York Mediale.