HOTELS across the region have established a new partnership to fill the destination marketing vacuum that will be left when One North East is abolished.

Some of the biggest names in the North-East hotel industry, including Rockliffe Hall, near Darlington, Ramside Hall, near Durham City, the Thistle Hotel, in Middlesbrough, Beamish Hall Hotel, near Stanley, and the Hilton, on Gateshead Quayside, have joined the initiative under the umbrella of the North East Hotels Association.

The not-for-profit organisation has 25 member hotels already, but also aims to include tourism businesses and suppliers in the partnership.

It aims to fill the gap that will be left by One North East, to be abolished in 2012, which has led the destination marketing and regional image campaigns to promote the region to visitors.

Tourism is worth £4bn a year to the North-East economy and supports more than 65,000 jobs.

The North-East was the only area outside London to show an increase in visitor numbers in 2008 and they rose again last year from 80 million to 83 million.

Association spokesman Peter Sloyan said: “Over the past year, it became increasingly obvious the public sector cuts would be significant and tourism would be a victim.

“Those doing the destination marketing would not be there, so we needed a fall-back position.

“We could see One North East being made smaller, but we couldn’t see it disappearing.”

The initiative will include two websites – one for trade where job vacancies can be posted and market intelligence shared, and a consumer site on which hotels can take bookings.

Mr Sloyan said hotels in the region had an average annual occupancy rate of 75 per cent and the target was to increase that to 80 per cent.

One of the ways it hopes to achieve this is by working with attractions and restaurants to offer packages for customers that include accommodation, meals and days out.

It also aims to pool the experience of hotel sales and marketing teams.

Nick Holmes, managing director of Rockliffe Hall, said: “What differentiates our partnership model is that it is inclusive of non-hotel tourism businesses and suppliers and it is a not-for-profit organisation.

“This is a time for new solutions shaped around partnership working where organisations pool resources to build networks of opportunity.

“For generations, we built moats between ourselves and our competitors. Today, the most successful businesses build bridges.

“Effective partnership is crucial to all businesses which want to survive.”

Damon Roberts, general manager of the Thistle Hotel, in Middlesbrough, said: “We really need to act together because we don’t know what is going to happen with the promotion of tourism.”

Mr Roberts believed if nothing was done there was a danger of not only undoing the good work of the past few years but also not moving forward.