TOURISM bosses want County Durham's visitor economy to be worth £1bn by 2020.

Visit County Durham had originally set a target of £863.4m by the end of the decade but revised it target after reaching almost £876m in 2017– a year which saw 19.7m visitors and 11,682 people employed full time in the tourism sector.

The new aspiration was revealed at this week's meeting of Durham County Council’s economy and enterprise overview and scrutiny committee.

Sarah Johnson, marketing and communications manager with Visit County Durham, said: “The outcomes of that will be further job creation, improving the visitor offer, better visitor facilities and support for communities. There’s 850 core tourism businesses [in the county] and 500 secondary businesses.”

The county hopes to secure Government funding towards initiatives targeting German visitors, making the most of the city's history and targeting American visitors flying into Manchester.

According to a report prepared for councillors, Visit County Durham, the council’s tourism arm, is involved with three separate bids through the government’s £40m Discover England Fund to lure more tourists to the region–The Explorers’ Route, focused on the A1, worth £1.4m and targeting German visitors; England’s Historic Cities, worth £1.6m; and the Manchester Gateway Project, worth £1.5m and intended to attract American visitors flying into Manchester Airport.

This year will see the return of Lumiere, ten years after it was first held in Durham. The last edition of the event in 2017 attracted about 240,000 people.

According to tourism bosses, day visitors to the county spend £20.71 per trip on average, rising to £177.08 per trip for overnighters.