KEY Tourism players thought they had been invited for a slap on the back and a glass of champagne but were instead told: “Make Oxford the UK’s top tourist attraction”.

Lord Mayor John Goddard issued the challenge at a reception at Oxford’s Malmaison Hotel – formerly the city prison – to celebrate a cleanest city gong and being named the UK’s second top destination at a prestigious magazine awa-rds.

Despite the impressive showing in the Conde Nast Traveller awards, Mr Goddard was not about to let the group, which included the city’s top hoteliers, restaurateurs and attraction managers, rest on their collective laurels.

He said: “It is a fantastic achievement but to get to number one would be unbelievably wonderful. How are we going to go about that?”

Mr Goddard, who attended the awards evening in London, said Oxford had topped the poll in terms of cleanliness and with regard to culture.

But he said there were areas where the city needed to improve – such as having a welcoming attitude to visitors.

He added: “We can learn from that and there is more to be done to make sure we realise tourism is part of the life blood of the city and we really depend on it.”

Debbie Dance, director of Oxford Preservation Trust, was a guest at the Malmaison reception and said the city had the potential to be Britain’s top tourist destination.

She said: “All over the world you will find pictures of our dreaming spires.

“We have the buildings, history, art and culture.

“Let’s make from the moment visitors arrive to the moment they leave something they tell their friends they cannot miss.”

In September, readers of Conde Nast’s Traveller magazine voted Oxford the cleanest in the UK during its annual poll.

More than 40,000 readers voted and the city came second to Edinburgh in the top UK destination category.

The award followed a bumper summer for tourism in Oxford with many of the city’s attractions recording record visitor numbers.

Visitors to the Tourism Information Centre were the highest since the office moved to Broad Street six years ago.

Some 78,934 visited the centre in July, up by 13,721 on the same month last year.

Tourism is estimated to be worth £600m a year and supports more than 13,000 jobs, according to research.