A SERIES of campaigns to attract visitors to the North-East generated £109m worth of additional spending in the region and supported more than 2,000 jobs, according to tourism chiefs.

Three organisations, the NewcastleGateshead Initiative, Northumberland Tourism and Visit County Durham, delivered a series of domestic marketing campaigns between 2012 and 2015.

The activity, part of Visit England’s ‘Growing Tourism Locally’ project, was funded by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund and matched with private sector funding.

Ads were taken out in national and regional print media, while television and outdoor advertising was also used.

Sarah Stewart, chief executive of NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said: “Tourism is the fourth largest sector of the regional economy and these latest results demonstrate both the success of our campaigns and the continued strength of the industry.”

Michelle Gorman, managing director at Visit County Durham, said: “These fantastic results are testament not only to the strength of the region’s tourism offer, but also to the way in which our tourism industry came together to work in partnership.

“Many Durham businesses took up the opportunity to be part of, and benefit from, the county’s biggest ever marketing campaign. And this partnership continues, with further national marketing campaigns for Durham planned for 2016 which will build upon this success.”

Annual visitor figures for the North-East show that in 2014 there were 64 million visits to the region generating £3.9bn worth of expenditure and supporting a total of 55,000 jobs.