A YORK tourism chief came face to face with a particularly fearsome visitor when she celebrated a major milestone for a top city attraction.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of the York Tourism Bureau, was at Jorvik to mark the fact that 250,000 visitors have passed through its doors in the 18 weeks since its major relaunch.

That figure does not include the 12 million people who sampled the Jorvik Viking Centre experience prior to April.

The success of the new-look Jorvik is believed to be having a knock-on effect for other attractions and shops in York, helping to buck the downward trend in tourism numbers caused by the foot and mouth crisis.

Mrs Cruddas said: "Since February of this year, York's attractions have shown a consistent increase in visitor numbers against the same period last year.

"Room occupancy levels have taken longer to recover.

"April saw the first significant improvement over last year - up four per cent on April 2000.

"The quality of our attractions is playing a key role in bringing people into the city."

Dr Peter Addyman, director of the York Archaeological Trust, which owns Jorvik, was delighted with the success of the attraction so far.

He said: "Our visitor numbers for August are up 30 per cent on the same weeks last year, but we are not sitting on our laurels.

"As well as helping to attract new visitors, we are also encouraging people who have already visited York in the past to come again, by flagging up the extent of the changes at Jorvik since our £5 million relaunch programme. It seems to be working."

Currently, 3,000 people a day are taking a "flight" over the 1,000-year-old city, and enjoying the radical alterations made in April.

These include new Viking "personnel", animated figures, and a suspended time-capsule ride. Even the famous queues have been altered, having been substantially reduced due to increased capacity.

Jorvik bosses are keen to attract local residents, as well as visitors, to its delights, and as a special extra offer, this Saturday and Sunday, they will receive a free Jorvik guide book, worth £2.50.

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Updated: 11:22 Friday, August 17, 2001