TOURISM chiefs were celebrating today after York was named as the best city to visit in Europe.

It was crowned as Europe's top city destination, beating off competition from other finalists Valencia and Gothenburg.

The first ever European Cities Tourism Awards were attended by over four hundred tourism professionals at a gala dinner in Athens last night.

The new awards scheme aims to celebrate world-class performance and to provide a benchmark for best practice among Europe's tourism cities and tourism organisations.

The judges were looking for cities that demonstrated a strong customer focus in all their activities, sustainable tourism development and performance based on economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

The chairman of the judging panel, Paul Dubrule, said: "York has unique characteristics, such as its 2,000 years of history, a variety of world-class attractions, distinctive shopping and festivals and events - all of which make it a destination well worth visiting, and on a year-round basis too."

He added: "Yet what impressed the judges most, is that this is a powerful example of a highly successful private-public sector partnership.

"The public sector has invested wisely in innovative and imaginative infrastructure projects and this in turn has helped stimulate substantial private sector investment because developers are confident they will see a good return."