RURAL communities are hoping the Easter weekend will mark the resurrection of the tourism industry after what for many has been the worst 12 months in living memory.

Yorkshire Forward and the Yorkshire Tourist Board issued a joint statement yesterday, claiming the hotel and catering trade in Yorkshire and the Humber can expect an £18m boost this year.

A £1.5m gamble on a TV and Press advertising campaign last year is said to have paid dividends, helping to attract an extra 57,000 people to holiday destinations in the region.

However, the legacy of foot-and-mouth disease is still evident on farms across the region, where the movement of livestock is governed by ministry regulations.

"It will take longer than the Easter weekend to undo the damage done by foot-and-mouth and longer still for the emotional scars to heal," said chief executive of the North York Moors National Park, Andy Wilson, yesterday.

However, he emphasised there have already been signs of a recovery in the tourism trade this week, with crowds returning to local attractions.

"We may not have the highest mountains or the biggest lakes, but we have the deepest history, which is something we must use to bring people to a country that has perhaps the richest heritage in the world,'' he said.

* Upwards of 50,000 people are expected to visit Farndale to follow the North York Moors Daffodil Walk this year. Buses have been laid on linking Hutton-le-Hole with the public transport network.

* Home Farm, at Beamish Open Air Museum, near Stanley, reopens this weekend after 18 months without visitors due to foot-and-mouth, while the North's largest food festival comes to Baltic Square, Gateshead Quayside, tomorrow and Sunday, promoting products from areas crippled by the crisis last year.

* An Easter egg hunt is planned in the walled garden at Whitworth Hall Country Park, near Spennymoor, County Durham, from 1pm today.

* Visitors to Bede's World, Jarrow, South Tyneside, can meet their Anglo Saxon ancestors when living history group Anmod Dracon brings 1,000-year-old crafts to life, from Saturday until Monday.

* Boiler problems have taken a favourite steam locomotive off the rails as a museum prepares for Easter. But train buffs and families need not despair because Merlin will still be on display at the Timothy Hackworth Victorian and Railway Museum, at Shildon, County Durham.

Visitors will still be able to enjoy the stationary engine and agricultural machinery rally, and model railways at the museum on Sunday and Monday