A SWALEDALE hotel has been named the best in Yorkshire in the new Good Hotel Guide, published today.

Edited by Adam and Caroline Raphael and Desmond Balmer, the book is hailed among the leaders in the field by the national travel press.

Staff at The Burgoyne, in The Green, Reeth, near Richmond, are celebrating after scooping one of the guide's Cesar awards in recognition of "impeccable service'', a "friendly welcome" and "superb cooking''.

Hotels included in the book have been recommended first by their customers, with the guide then sending its writers anonymously.

"We had no idea when they were coming, or even when they had been," said partner Derek Hickson, yesterday.

"It gave us all a sense of achievement to discover we had won an award, although we are very lucky to have an excellent team.

"We believe you have to offer quality as there is so much choice out there; people can easily go abroad these days, so you have to give them something special."

However, while the awards celebrate the best the UK has to offer, the guide also claims a lack of Government investment in tourism is costing the industry dear.

"Here is an industry which has created 20 per cent of all new jobs over the past decade, and generated £500bn in revenues," its editors say.

"It employs more people than agriculture, coal mining, steel, car manufacturing, aircraft manufacture, food production and textiles put together - yet it has been almost totally ignored by successive governments."