NORTH Yorkshire is now a more popular staycation destination than Cornwall or Devon.

Figures from a national holiday company show a third of all UK travellers are choosing to stay in the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors or the Lake District for a mini break.

Holiday lettings agency, Sykes Cottages, says its figures have shown the north of England is now a more popular holiday destination than the south, with only 23 per cent of Britons were choosing southern England for a break.

The company said over the recent August Bank Holiday, more customers than ever were heading to the north and experience the heritage and landscape of places like the Yorkshire Dales.

The figures are in accordance with Visit Britain findings, which reported a 12 per cent increase in UK visitors to Yorkshire between July and September 2016, compared to the previous year.

The appeal of Yorkshire as a holiday destination hasn’t just been confined to UK travellers. International visitors to Yorkshire spent nearly £100m in the first quarter of this year; a 30 per cent increase on the same period last year and nearly double the national average.

Speaking recently, Sir Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said increasing visitors in this way was one of the main reasons for putting on global events like the Tour de Yorkshire and UCI Road World Championships, which are televised to “hundreds of millions of people” and he said act as a “giant postcard beaming stunning images of Yorkshire across the globe.”

Justin Scully, manager at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, Ripon said: “We’re certainly seeing the benefit of Yorkshire hosting these huge events and are welcoming even more visitors to the World Heritage Site from overseas. Organised groups from Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and China are increasing as well as the number of independent travellers who are enjoying extended stays in this beautiful county of ours.”

One of North Yorkshire’s most successful attractions is Flamingo Land, which was the UK's fourth most visited paid-for attraction in 2016, according to Visit Britain. Last year it attracted 1.6m visitors, which was more than Stonehenge, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey or London Zoo. The next most visited paid-for attraction in the county was York Minster, which attracted 614,000 visitors.