THE recession is providing a shot in the arm for the region’s tourism industry, with a number of attractions reporting record-breaking visitor figures.

A tourism boom is being fuelled by more people choosing to holiday at home because of the ongoing economic uncertainty and more foreign visitors heading to the UK because of the favourable exchange rate Statistics show a number of high-profile attractions seeing a rise in Easter visitors.

Weardale Railway, in County Durham, had a record-breaking weekend, with more than 1,000 visitors, while Wear Valley Food Festival, also in County Durham, attracted 28,000 visitors, up 8,000 on last year.

The Forestry Commission said Hamsterley Forest, near Bishop Auckland, received 3,000 visitors over the Easter weekend, with mountain bike hire sold out, and Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon, County Durham, said visitor numbers for April were up by 26 per cent on the same period last year.

Beamish Museum, near Stanley, County Durham, was visited by more than 10,000 people over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Museum director Richard Evans said: “Although we were worried that the recession might affect our visitor numbers, in fact the reverse is probably true.”