Tourism chiefs have travelled to the Beijing Olympics to encourage Chinese holidaymakers to visit the Bradford district.

They will be promoting Yorkshire attractions, including the sweeping beauty of the Aire and Wharfe Valleys, historic Saltaire and picturesque Haworth – home of the Bronte sisters.

VisitBritian has sent a delegation to Beijing in a bid to tap into lucrative tourist markets, as well as promoting the region’s facilities as possible training bases for the 2012 London Olympics.

Spokesman Elliott Frisby said many of the people living in the emerging markets of the Far East had their first experiences of Britain through reading novels such as Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre or Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. He said the officials hoped to tap into the Chinese love of literature and the countryside.

He said: “It is not just about the Chinese. The big thing about our presence in Beijing is that the world media is going to be there. It will give us an opportunity to paint areas like Haworth in a positive light to all nationalities. Often their familiarity with the country comes from the books they have read and the films they have seen. To be able to say ‘come to Bronte Country’ is an absolutely key way to promote this country.”

Attracting visitors from places like China and India has become important as their booming economies mean more people are able to afford foreign travel. Mr Frisby said: “We need to make sure that we are selling the region’s potential not only to sporting bodies as potential training camp locations but to Chinese consumers and the world.”

Officials from Yorkshire have also travelled to the Games to promote the region’s facilities as a training base.

The delegation, including Yorkshire Forward’s executive chairman Martin Havenhand and its head of major events Neil Jenkinson, are armed with publicity material promoting the region as a tourist destination.

David Andrews, chief executive of Yorkshire Tourist Board, said: “There is a section in our business plan about developing networks with China and close relationships with provinces and cities there.

“There are a lot of links already through Yorkshire’s universities, and the plan is to develop the relationship over the next three years.

“Our first focus is on the Indian sub-continent and that is a specific area we are targeting at the Beijing Olympics training camps.”