FOR far too long, the Tees Valley has been the part of the North-East that has seemed reluctant to make itself heard.

While the authorities in Newcastle and Sunderland have made great efforts to champion their cities, and County Durham has been successfully marketed via a range of well thoughtout initiatives, the Tees Valley has always felt like the part of the region that didn’t really know what it wanted to be.

Not any more. Today sees the launch of the “Enjoy Tees Valley” initiative, a campaign that aims to attract 20m tourists a year and add £1bn to the local economy by 2021.

Those are lofty ambitions, but it is high time an area combining the local authorities of Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Redcar and Cleveland began to think big. Here at The Northern Echo, we have always championed Tees Valley which is one of our heartland areas.

Whether it is Darlington and Stockton, with their shared railway heritage, Middlesbrough, with its industrial heart, Hartlepool, with its maritime legacy, or Redcar, with its beautiful coastline, we have been promoting the Tees Valley from our very first edition. We are therefore wholeheartedly behind mayor Ben Houchen’s attempts to raise Tees Valley’s profile and unashamedly brag about just what a great part of the world we live in. Some will say the Tees Valley is an artificial construct that doesn’t mean much to those who live in it.

It is to be hoped this campaign helps foster a common identity that benefits all. We all enjoy the Tees Valley on a daily basis – it is time to encourage others to do so too.