OXFORD has been voted one of the best cities for young people to visit in the UK.

The city was given the silver award in the ‘Best UK Youth Destination’ category at the British Youth Travel Awards in London.

City council leader Bob Price said he was 'delighted but not at all surprised' at the recognition.

He added: “As a university city, we have a fabulous range of cafes, clubs, bars to cater for young people and an arts, music and dance scene that is amongst the best in the country for a small city.

"Oxford is popular with students and with language schools and it is really great that we have won this award.”

There were 622 entries into the awards and 18,348 votes were received from members of the public.

The award was one of a string of top tourism awards won by Oxfordshire in recent months.

Oxford's visitor information service, Blenheim Palace and Oxford Castle were all honoured at the Beautiful South awards in November.

Hayley Beer-Gamage, Chief Executive of Experience Oxfordshire, said: “The youth travel market is very important to the Oxford visitor economy.

"We are delighted with the silver award as it shows that young people love visiting our city of dreaming spires.

"Our focus on attracting a younger market through marketing campaigns such as the Bodleian Library Augmented Reality App aims to attract even more of the next generation to the city and county in the coming years.

The youth travel market is said to be worth over £22.3 billion to the economy.