RYEDALE'S tourism industry has got off to an early start in the campaign to attract visitors for next year by being the first district in Yorkshire to launch its new holiday guide.

During the next few weeks, 60,000 brochures and 300,000 promotional leaflets will be sent to all parts of Britain and Europe, says the district council's tourist assistant officer, Sarah Keys.

In addition, the department will be giving Ryedale, whose tourist business is worth nearly £100 million a year according to latest official figures, a further boost at the European-wide travel exhibitions in the Dutch cities of Utrecht and Amsterdam, and in the Belgian capital, Brussels early in the new year.

The council is working with North Sea Ferries to persuade tourists from the Low Countries coming ashore at Hull to stay in Ryedale, and has also joined forces with Scarborough Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council in the Yorkshire Coast and Country campaign, said Ms Keys.

But the northern part of Ryedale is still recovering from foot-and-mouth disease, she added.

The brochures, which bill Ryedale as North Yorkshire's natural attraction, could aid the recovery, she said.

Ms Keys and the council are confident of breaking through the £100 million earnings barrier from tourism next year