RYEDALE'S tourism enterprises have scooped 'Oscars' in the Yorkshire holiday industry awards.

Fast recovering from last year's foot and mouth disease outbreak, Ryedale emerged as the leader when the Yorkshire Tourist Board announced its 2002 winners at a glittering ceremony and dinner at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

The top winners were Moorlands Country Guest House, Levisham (best guest house); Beech Farm Cottages, Wrelton (self-catering); Foster and Hawkes toy shop, Helmsley (outstanding customer service); Pickering Tourist Information Centre (TIC of the year).

And Ryedale also produced three other finalists - The Orchard Tree guest house at Rosedale, Flamingo Land theme park, Kirby Misperton, and Helmsley Tourist Information Centre. Just over the district council boundary at Snainton, the Jasmine Caravan Park scooped the honour of best caravan and camping park.

Corina Inverno, Ryedale's tourism officer, said "It is a wonderful achievement and proves just what quality we have to offer our visitors."

Now, Ryedale is set to build on the successes by featuring in holiday exhibitions in the next few months aimed at attracting more visitors next year.

Hopes are high that tourism this year will earn £100m for Ryedale, said Ms Inverno.

The district authority is teaming up with the North York Moors National Park, East Yorkshire and Scarborough borough councils, and Hull City Council to promote the vast "Yorkshire coast and country area." Each of the authorities is pooling its resources and will be featured at the big walking exhibition, Op-Pad, in Amsterdam; at the Utrecht holiday market, one of the world's biggest tourist exhibitions; and at a top exhibition in Brussels.

In addition, Ryedale is part of the 'England's North Country' marketing group and is also working with Forest Enterprise to attract walkers and cyclists to explore the district's spectacular scenery.

The area also hopes to cash in on a new £700,000 three-year initiative financed by Yorkshire Forward, the Government's regional development agency. Its aim is to support growth businesses in Ryedale and the national park, said Ms Inverno.

A specialist is to be employed to pin-point growth businesses, she added. "We are working together with other partners in themed campaigns which we are confident will bring more people to Ryedale."

There is already a big data base in existence which will be used to target new business. The campaigns will be customer-led. "We have all the right things for a buoyant tourist industry," said Ms Inverno, "but people are not always talking to each other. But networking can be difficult when people are working 14 hours a day.

"There is a lot of potential which is not being exploited - we want to promote Ryedale's heritage and wildlife."

Ryedale's tourist information centres at Helmsley, Pickering and Malton will be playing a key part in the new themed promotions.

Ryedale's new tourism policy is currently being finalised by the district council which is likely to be decided by the members in November.

After winning the White Rose Awards in Yorkshire, Beech Farm Cottages, Jasmine Caravan Park, Pickering TIC, Foster and Hawkes toy shop and Moorlands Country House each go forward to represent Yorkshire in the England for Excellence Awards which are held next April.

Updated: 09:20 Wednesday, October 09, 2002