DAY-trippers the world over are becoming increasingly fascinated with Hereford's rich ancestry, soaring visitor figures at the cathedral have revealed.

And its partly due to the TV series on the subject that tourist numbers shot up to 45,000 this year.

Filming at the cathedral for the hit series Meet the Ancestors, repeated last Friday, together with national and local media publicity, have contributed to a 16 per cent increase in names in the visitor book. For some periods the figure is an astounding 50 per cent up on last year.

"What we are finding is people are gradually changing and visiting Hereford more. We are getting more exposure nationally in terms of TV programmes and documentaries and people are realising what a great resource the cathedral is," said education and marketing manager Dominic Harbour.

The message has been repeated in a national tourism report from the International Council for Monuments and Signs on Britain's cathedrals, which ranked Hereford in the top four in terms of increased visitor numbers. In particular researchers cited the quality of promotions and marketing at Hereford.

"It's paying dividends. Now we are getting a lot of very positive feedback. In the last couple of weeks we had film makers from Minneapolis filming the Mappa Mundi and Chained Library exhibitions," said Dominic.

His survey has revealed that just seven per cent of visitors to the cathedral are from Hereford and 12 per cent are from the county. Most tourists, 65 per cent, have travelled from elsewhere in the UK and are spending a weekend in the area.

Around 16 per cent of visitors are from overseas, and of these most are Americans, Australians and Canadians.

Figures have also been boosted thanks to on going work by the cathedral stonemasons and the restoration of the beautiful chapter house garden, where recitals have been taking place at Friday lunchtimes.

In the visitor book words like 'excellent', 'wonderful', 'impressive' and 'fascinating' predominate as well as longer phrases, praising the quality of the exhibitions, staff and the sense of history.

The cathedral will be featured in the November issue of the BBC's History Magazine.