Tourism chiefs are hoping Bradford's value-for-money reputation will soon be attracting budget-keen visitors from Europe.

In the next couple of weeks, people living in France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands will be receiving direct mail telling them about the wonders of Bradford and its neighbour Leeds.

The tourism push is a £120,000 shared campaign to promote Bradford and Leeds as the gateway to Yorkshire, included as part of VisitBritain's Citybreaks initiative.

Tourism officials from both cities have teamed up with Jet2, who fly out of Leeds-Bradford airport, and England's North Country Tourism to get the message across that visiting Yorkshire can be a bargain.

Direct mail, internet campaigns and posters in towns and cities will be drumming up trade for the second year running.

Bradford Tourism's marketing officer John Swinburn said feedback from last year's campaign had been particularly positive, especially from Italy.

"Through the campaign we got a visit from an Italian film crew and a six-page write-up with pictures in a tourism magazine, which was great.

"We're hoping this year's shot will bring in even better results and it's something we will continue next year too.

"Bradford does not automatically leap into the minds of our European visitors but we are working on it."

World heritage site Saltaire, Haworth's Bronte country, Ilkley Moor and Asian food are just some of the jewels of Bradford's crown which are being featured in the campaign.

Mr Swindon said: "One of our messages is that Bradford is good value for money and it's cheap and easy to get to Yorkshire using its airport.

"The problem we are up against is that people look straight to London and see how expensive it is and wrongly think it's the same over the rest of the country, which just isn't the case."