VISITORS are being lured away from the Tees Valley to neighbouring destinations which have the infrastructure in place to attract funding and run promotional campaigns, it is claimed.

Critics have pointed out that while tourism agencies elsewhere in the North-East and North Yorkshire last week benefited from £1.9m in funding from the regional growth funding (RGF), the Tees Valley received nothing.

Tourism industry expert Richard Spencer, from the Hartlepool -based consultants PartnershipGlu, which works with a number of private sector tourism businesses, said: “We are being squeezed by our neighbours in the north and south as they enjoy this pot of gold – paid for in part by taxpayers in the Tees Valley.

“How many people will be persuaded away from surfing at Saltburn , visiting the Trincomalee, or dinner at Wynyard by the advertising campaigns of those destinations which did succeed in getting this taxpayers money?

“The losers are the tourism private sector and people working in tourism in the Tees Valley.”

Until it shut earlier this year following the demise of One North East, tourism promotion was handled by Visit Tees Valley.

Tees Valley Unlimited (TVU), which operated Visit Tees Valley, has now passed responsibility for tourism to individual local authorities.

However, budget cuts mean they have little money to spend on promotional campaigns.

Hartlepool mayor Stuart Drummond admitted that the Tees Valley missed out on RGF funding because it had nobody to bid for the cash.

He said only Hartlepool and Redcar had significant tourism industries and following the demise of One North East and Visit Tees Valley, there had been little interest among other authorities in forming a new body to promote the sub-region to visitors.

He said Hartlepool planned to forge relationships with the private sector where possible.

However, he added: “The long and the short of it is there is not enough money about. We will do what we can on a small scale but we know it’s a dilemma.”

Earlier this year, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council was criticised for spending nearly £50,000 on a specialist promotion and marketing contract to promote its new vertical pier.

Councillor Sheelagh Clarke, from the council, said the new seafront, civic heart and vertical pier meant the borough had lots to attract visitors, but she added: “Having a body like Tees Valley Tourism Bureau would have been a real plus.”