Increasing the appeal of Bradford city centre to middle class Britain must be the “top priority” for the district’s policy makers, councillors will be told this week.

And central to achieving that is completing the Park At The Heart project with the mirror pool and other eye-catching buildings.

The findings of a consultants’ report on tourism in the district will be presented to Bradford Council’s Regeneration and Economy Improvement Committee on Tuesday.

Locum Consulting will tell them the key challenge is to lift the city centre’s appeal to persuade local people, especially more affluent people living outside the ring road, to visit more often and spend more money there.

The report, commissioned by Bradford Council and Bradford Centre Regeneration, says: “The population of the country is increasingly middle class and any place that wants to have a thriving economy can only do so by appealing to middle class taste. Upping the quality of the visitor-offer in the city centre to make it a primary leisure resource for the metropolitan area and its surrounds should be top priority.”

The consultants say that the Park at the Heart project, for which funding is being sought, is of critical importance.

The report says: “The sums of money needed, while relatively large in absolute terms, are small in the context of the benefits it will bring both economically and, more importantly, in quality of life.”

Visitors make 762,000 ‘staying trips’ to the Bradford district a year, with tourism estimated at bringing in £465.2 million.

And visitors’ spending supports 8,200 jobs, taking into account part-time and seasonal work.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, the Council’s executive member with responsibility for tourism, said: “Plenty of people visit the district but we need them to stay longer and spend more.”

A spokesman for Bradford Centre Regeneration said: “As the city is revived from its core through an ambitious £3bn regeneration programme, new and exciting leisure facilities and attractions are being developed, helping draw more tourists to the district.

“With schemes such as the world-class City Park, the £320m Westfield shopping centre and planned leisure facilities within New Victoria Place, Bradford is beginning to unlock its potential as a tourism destination.”

The current economic climate is another factor for the tourism industry to consider, with many of the district’s top attractions still waiting to see if there will be any long-term impact.

Andrew McCarthy, director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum, in Haworth, said: “The first part of the year was particularly difficult and, in May, we were 18 to 20 per cent down on visitor numbers from the previous year.

“It was looking bleak at that point but we have clawed back a lot of ground through the summer.”

He said it would be interesting to see if market conditions impacted on visitor numbers next year.

In June, July and August, there were 200,135 visits to Bradford’s National Media Museum, a 2.64 per cent increase on the same period last year.

e-mail: will.kilner @telegraphandargus.co.uk