TOURIST numbers have risen sharply at York’s Visitor Information Centre since it moved to a new home two years ago, according to tourism chiefs.

Visit York, the city’s official tourism body, said there had been an increase of 117 per cent in people coming into the centre at Museum Street, following the move from the De Grey Rooms in Exhibition Square.

The increase has been put down to the centre’s “state-of the audio-visual information screens” and “robust marketing” of the facility.

The rise in Chinese visitors to York has also seen the centre take on a volunteer fluent in Mandarin.

Susan Lee said: “Visitors from China and Hong Kong are always surprised when they arrive in the visitor centre and I can speak fluently with them.

“They always ask me more questions and show me their Chinese travel guides. Being able to chat in Mandarin helps them feel at home.”

In its first year of trading, Visit York said it aimed to increase visits to the new centre by 40 per cent to 336,000.

By March 2011, footfall figures had already reached 390,208, more than 54,000 higher than the number anticipated.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of Visit York, said: “The increase in footfall that our new Information Centre has seen in the last two years has exceeded all our expectations.

“We anticipated the new facilities would attract more visits to the centre, but we have been delighted to see our estimates blown out of the water by the figures just in for 2011/2012.

“York is a world-class tourism destination and we needed to ensure that our information centre reflected this standing.

“With the addition of cutting-edge facilities, the new centre now offers visitors a top-quality, memorable experience in the city, from start to finish.”

As well as the boom in visitors from China and Hong Kong, Visit York said the centre had also seen a rise in tourists from Eastern Europe, Spain, Italy and France.

Visit York said the fact that it also accepts euros was encouraging more European visitors to take home a souvenir from Yorkshire.