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Durham voted onto prestigious list

DURHAM has again been voted in the UK’s Top-15 cities to visit by an international travel magazine.

The historic heritage city was named 13th in the UK’s top-15 cities in a poll of the Conde Nast Traveller readers - who voted Edinburgh their favourite city.

It is the latest in a line of accolades for Durham.

A BBC Radio Four listener poll voted Durham Cathedral “Britain’s favourite building” in 2001 and travel writer Bill Bryson described Durham as a ‘perfect little city’ with the ‘best cathedral on Planet Earth’ in his book Notes from a Small Island (1991).

Melanie Sensicle, chief executive of Visit County Durham, said: “As one of the smallest heritage cities in the country to be on the same list as Oxford, York and Bath proves that Durham is now in the premier league of visitor destinations.

“Here in Durham we already know we are in the premier league of places to live and visit. It’s great to see that visitors agree with us.”

Visit County Durham hopes the accolade will boost visitor numbers to the county during the traditionally quiet shoulder season of autumn and winter.

Craig Wilson, destination development manager at Visit County Durham, added: “The autumn is a perfect time to visit Durham with the leaves changing colour on the city’s heavily wooded riverbanks and soft light illuminating the county’s wide open Dales and short but beautiful Heritage coastline.”

Tourism is said to be worth £650m to the county’s economy, sustains 12,000 jobs and attracts 18m visitors the county per year.

The publicity boost comes at a key moment for the city as this year’s programme of cultural events and festivals comes to a close.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .