THE region's visitor attractions managed to put a brave face on the twin troubles of the foot-and-mouth crisis and mixed weather over the weekend.

Those who had not jetted off to warmer climes appeared mainly to have chosen to shun the countryside for towns and city centres, although many parts of the region - on the beaten track - were bristling with visitors.

Coastal areas reported booming trade when the rain held off, and towns and inner cities across the region were packed with shoppers for most of the Bank Holiday weekend.

Rural tourist hotspots enjoyed another busy day yesterday as visitors continued to make a tentative return.

City break bookings in Durham were up by 64 per cent, and it was business as usual for much of Wear Valley and Teesdale.

A steady stream of visitors was reported at Barnard Castle and Bowes Museum, and Shildon's Timothy Hackworth Museum also found the crisis had not dented visitor numbers.

At the tourist information office in the Durham Dales Centre, at Stanhope, Kath O'Dell said they were "extremely busy".

But for the hotel trade in Weardale it was a different story.

Hotels and pubs which could normally bank on large numbers of tourists over the bank holiday barely saw a handful of visitors.

Further south, a spokeswoman for the Castle Howard estate, near Malton, North Yorkshire, said: "We have had a splendid day and hopefully it will continue. It has been nice to see everyone out and enjoying themselves again."

And attractions along the North Yorkshire coast continued to reap the benefits of the restrictions imposed on the countryside.

Jeremy Reed, head custodian at Scarborough Castle, said it had enjoyed another steady day to build on the huge success of Good Friday, when the fortress pulled in 91.5 per cent more visitors than last year.

At Helmsley, also North Yorkshire, a tourism information spokeswoman said business was picking up, with increasing numbers of people booking into bed and breakfasts over the past few days.

But it was the incomparable British climate, not foot-and-mouth that put the mockers on a chance of an out-of-doors Easter weekend elsewhere.

Squalls and showers of hailstones represented the final straw for most people who elected to stay at home round the television in Teesside and east Cleveland, apart from riders out for a canter of Saltburn beach, taking advantage of a transient show of sunshine

Read more about Foot-and-Mouth here.