IF recent reports from tourism bosses are anything to go by, the North-East is basking in the glory of a tourism boom.

According to latest reports from Visit England, their data shows the strongest set of visitor figures to the region since before the recession hit in 2008.

During the first six months of 2014, the North-East attracted the highest number of visitors for five years – up 25 per cent on last year. They also reveal that the North-East played host to 222,000 visitors from overseas in 2014, making it a popular destination of choice for jet setters from Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, who featured in the top five for inbound visitors and helped to boost the region’s coffers by an estimated £88m.

Whether it’s down to lady luck, or a carefully laid strategy, such encouraging numbers are undoubtedly a pat on the back for agencies like NewcastleGateshead Initiative, who have been charged with marketing the region on a national and international stage for over a decade.

Established in 2000, and supported by both Newcastle and Gateshead City Councils and over 170 partner organisations across the North East, NewcastleGateshead Initiative is tasked with a mission to ‘Inspire people to visit, and to live, learn, work and invest here.’

If the reported tourism boom is anything to go by, I’d say some of their best laid plans have paid off this year. And better still (and with no pun intended), the Visit England report findings landed just days after Newcastle International Airport announced that it would soon open up a direct route to New York, with the potential to bring yet more transatlantic tourists to explore all that the North-East has to offer.

Travel between this region and the United States at present is a headache-fuelled journey for those with deep pockets and plenty of time to spare. It involves first travelling by train, or by car, in the wrong direction to either Manchester or Edinburgh, or flying to Amsterdam or London and grabbing a connecting flight.

But life for transatlantic tourists will be getting easier from May 2015, when United Airlines will be operating the five-times per week service between New York and Newcastle, allowing holidaymakers to take a bite out of the Big Apple for around £550 in under 8 hours, door-to-door.

Originally set to launch in 2007, but pulled as an unfortunate consequence of the global economic downturn, the United Airlines route will be the first regular service from the North-East across the Atlantic, making Newcastle their seventh transatlantic service in the UK, after London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast and Edinburgh.

Ahead of the first flight lies a lot more work, with Newcastle International looking to engage with the businesses community, all five universities, and with agencies like the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, CBI and NewcastleGateshead Initiative, to get Americans excited about what the region has to offer.

And seeing as anything north of the M62 corridor is missing out on high-speed rail plans to build a new 125mph service between Manchester and Leeds – or HS3, as it’s known in the corridors of power, news of a direct USA flight is sure to herald yet more great things for our local tourism industry, which has fast become one of our most successful economic drivers and supports around 54,000 jobs across the region.

Samantha Dolby is an Investment Manager at Brewin Dolphin in Newcastle. For more information email samantha.dolby@brewin.co.uk or visit www.brewin.co.uk/newcastle ENDS

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily the views held throughout Brewin Dolphin Ltd. No Director, representative or employee of Brewin Dolphin Ltd accepts liability for any direct or consequential loss arising from the use of this document or its contents. Any tax allowances or thresholds mentioned are based on personal circumstances and current legislation which is subject to change.