ONE of the North-East's top museums has lost an estimated seven per cent of trade after being hit by foot-and-mouth disease this year.

However, new director of Beamish Open Air Museum, Miriam Harte, said the figures would have been much worse if the North-East public had not made up for the shortfall of tourists cancelling from across Britain.

Latest estimates from the Northumbria Tourist Board reveal that about £500m has been lost to the region's tourism industry this year. Another report by Newcastle University reckons the loss is nearer £700m.

Ms Harte, who was appointed earlier this year, said it had been a long and tough summer season.

She said: "We had to be very stringent and prudent in how we spent our money after being closed for six weeks in the early season. We recruited people later than normal and abandoned non-essential repairs and refurbishment. Hopefully, the public did not notice, but it was hard for everyone having slightly fewer people.

"We calculate our figures to the end of March, but after the summer season we think we will end up with having had about 300,000 to 310,000 visitors this year. That is about seven per cent down, but other tourist attractions are 20 per cent down, or worse, and have had it very tough.

"In a normal year about 70 per cent of all our visitors are from across Britain, and the rest are from the region. This year, about 40 per cent were local people which was a great boost. Next year we need to get out there to get the tourists back. The first thing we are doing is looking at getting coach operators to come again."

Ms Harte said the staff had been given a boost after a hard year after being voted one of the country's top attractions. The museum was crowned Living Museum of the Year by The Good Britain Guide, which details the top attractions in the country.

A spokesman for the Northumbria Tourist Board said it had been estimated that £500m was lost, of which £100m had been lost from overseas visitors coming to the North-East. Northumbria Tourist Board is currently calculating a detailed study of the number of visitors who came to the region this year, which will be released in the coming weeks.