NEW figures show that overseas visits to Yorkshire jumped last year when the region hosted the Tour de France Grand Depart.

From January to September the number of people visiting from abroad increased by 12 per cent to 1.08 million who spent £465 million.

The strongest growth in visits came from Australia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and USA.

Holiday visits in particular, across the first nine months of 2014, had a significant jump of 32 per cent and the amount spent by tourists went up a massive 70 per cent.

Between July and September, there were 472,000 overseas visits to Yorkshire — a new record for that period.

Gary Verity, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, who led the winning bid to bring the Tour de France to the county, said: “Yorkshire’s global profile has never been higher and this is further evidence of the huge beneficial impact of bringing the world’s largest annual sporting event to the county.

“We know when visitors from around the world come to Yorkshire they fall in love with the county, which helps drive up repeat visits.”