VISITOR attractions in York were today celebrating having cracked the golden egg for Easter.

Tourism chiefs are amazed at the huge boost in visitors, not only on the four days over the extended weekend, but also at bumper bookings for the attractions in the week's run-up to the holidays.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of the York Tourism Bureau, said: "It augurs fantastically well for summer." She pointed to how recent publicity for the city's new attractions was now paying dividends.

Her Visitors Information Centres reported increases of 50 per cent over last year in the week's run-up to Easter in accommodation bookings, the sale of York passes and tickets for YorkBoat, the York Dungeon and open top buses.

York Dungeon in Clifford Street alone had 12 per cent more visitors over the four holidays this year, many of them attracted by its new feature, the Labyrinth of the Lost.

There was also a huge surge of interest in the National Railway Museum's Yorkshire Wheel, where by yesterday morning 33,000 people had viewed the lofty vista over the city.

Visitor numbers at the Jorvik Viking Centre also outstripped last year's, and the new DIG interactive exhibition at the Archaeological Resource Centre in St Saviourgate, which has had a £1 million revamp, was said by Mrs Cruddas to have "got off to a great start".

One of the biggest hits with the public was the launch of the refurbished Kirkgate exhibition at the York Castle Museum. In the week before Easter Friday last year the museum had a little under 5,500 visitors. This year the numbers soared by 67 per cent, to more than 9,000.

Over the Easter weekend the museum had 6,700 visitors, about 200 more than the same period last Easter.

Mary Kershaw, director of collections at the Yorkshire Museum, was "thrilled" by the response to the new Constantine Exhibition there, which celebrates Constantine's proclamation as emperor in AD306 by bringing together relics of his empire under one roof for the first time.

In the week up to Easter Friday visitor numbers at the Yorkshire Museum soared 110 per cent over the same period in 2005 to 2,200. The Easter weekend figures were up too by 37 per cent - from 950 last year to 1,300.

The only disappointment was the numbers visiting York Art Gallery, which in the week to Friday was down 34 per cent, while Easter weekend figures slumped by 40 per cent.

But a spokesman for the York Museums Trust pointed out that last year, when the gallery reopened after a huge revamp, it was a bumper year and the figures paled by comparison.

Accommodation bookings through the York Tourism Bureau were up a slight three per cent on last year. Mrs Cruddas said: "We think this is because we had a late Easter, the weather was fairly good and we had a whole host of new attractions, particularly The Dig, the reopening of Kirkgate, the Flying Scotsman at the National Railway Museum, the Constantine Exhibition, the English Heritage Cold War Bunker in Acomb and, of course, the big wheel."

By contrast, for many retailers in the city the Easter egg was a curate's egg - only good in parts.

Adam Sinclair, chairman of the York Chamber of Trade and owner of Mulberry Hall, the specialist glass store in Stonegate, said: "It's a mixed picture. Friday and Saturday were good. Monday and Tuesday were poor.

"The retail economy has been difficult, and Easter made it no more difficult or easy."

Updated: 10:45 Thursday, April 20, 2006