Northumbria Tourist Board is to unveil its new framework for tourism on Valentine's Day, having prepared it on behalf of Regional Development Agency, One NorthEast, in just 100 days.

Chief executive of Northumbria Tourist Board, Peter Sloyan, said: 'The last big strategy for the region took two years to produce and was mainly focused on setting out what needed to be done, rather than actually doing it - this new strategy is all about action.'

The new framework, which is being produced well in advance of 1 April, when the strategic responsibility for tourism will transfer to the RDAs, will place the visitor at its heart. 'It sounds such an obvious thing to do, because without the visitor, tourism is meaningless,' says Sloyan, 'however, no strategy has ever been produced that really looks at tourism through a visitors eyes.

'It is the measurement of and response to visitor feelings and emotions that will drive this new strategy. It is all about getting closer to, understanding and communicating with the visitor. They are the acid test that will decide where we are going in terms of new developments initiatives, and campaigns.'

The framework is to be entirely web-based, on www.livetourism.com. 'This is also the first time that we have produced a strategy online,' said Sloyan. 'Being right on the front line of any event or incident - such as foot and mouth disease or September 11 - tourism is very fragile, so printed copies of a strategy are outdated very quickly. Being web-driven we can create a sustainable framework that can embrace change and be updated easily - without costing anything.'