LEADING personalities in the tourism and farming world will be attending the launch of a fight back after foot and mouth disease at Wold Cottage, Wold Newton, on Thursday, January 24.

National Farmers Union president Ben Gill, Yorkshire Tourist Board chief executive David Andrews, and Yorkshire cricket captain David Byas, who is also a farmer, will be celebrating Farmhouse Breakfast Week at Wold Cottage, the Georgian farmhouse owned by Derek and Katrina Gray.

In addition, Nigel Embry, chief executive of Farmstay UK, and the Yorkshire-based chairman-elect, Christine Ryder, will be taking part in the campaign.

Mrs Gray, who was a finalist in the Yorkshire Tourist Board's bed and breakfast accommodation last year, and a member of Farmstay UK, said: "After the problems of 2001, the Yorkshire members are now looking to the future with renewed confidence and determination."

Farmstay, which recently won the tourism board's 'Oscar' for services to tourism, is launching a major campaign at for its farmhouse B & B and farm holiday cottage members with a new branding, new colour brochure and a new web site.

The campaign will complement the £1.5m multi-media promotion by YTB and Yorkshire Forward which is currently being undertaken in the Home Counties and the Midlands.

Updated: 09:29 Thursday, January 17, 2002