THE region's largest tourist board was officially dissolved yesterday.

At a meeting in Newcastle, Northumbria Tourist Board (NTB) formally ceased to exist, and was incorporated into the regional development agency, One NorthEast.

All 38 NTB staff will transfer to the agency, but will continue to work from their offices in Aykley Heads, Durham, and Hexham, North-umberland.

It marks the end of a difficult year for the NTB, which had 1,600 members in the Tees Valley, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.

The Government gave One NorthEast strategic responsibility for tourism last April, with the board intended to be its key partner.

But the two organisations could not agree on a common approach and their relationship gradually deteriorated.

By December, the pair were at war after the agency declared it would take over complete responsibility for tourism in the region, effectively making the tourist board redundant.

Talks since then have seen the two sides reach an agreement where NTB staff have moved to One NorthEast to continue to deliver the service, but under the agency's banner.

Tourism is a huge part of the North-East economy growing from £460m in 1990 to about £1.6bn - about ten per cent of the region's gross income.

In the next decade, it is expected to top £3bn.