A MULTILINGUAL teenager has translated parts of Ribble Valley Borough Council’s website as part of a campaign to attract more overseas visitors.

Clitheroe Royal Grammar School pupil Lucy Woods, 18, set about translating sections of the website into French, German and Spanish.

The pupil said she was keen to apply her language skills and contacted the council’s tourism and events officer, Tom Pridmore, with an offer to translate parts of the website to make it more accessible to overseas visitors.

The teenager from Straits Lane in Read hopes to study Spanish and German at Durham University after she gets her A-Levels in the summer.

There are also plans to translate more of the council’s information into languages including Chinese, Mandarin and Dutch.

Lucy said: “I have always enjoyed languages from an early age and you get to learn so much about different cultures.

“I’m proud of what I have achieved and there are plans for me to translate whole booklets in the future.

“I think it would be better to promote the Ribble Valley more on an international scale because it’s such a beautiful place.”

Tom said: “Lucy has enthusiastically translated significant parts of our tourism web site into French, German and Spanish, as well as making the content more relevant.

“We hope to reproduce her work into printed leaflets for Clitheroe, Whalley, Longridge and the Forest of Bowland, as we are keen to welcome overseas visitors to Ribble Valley.”

National tourism figures show that visitor numbers in Ribble Valley increased by three per cent last year, from 3.5million to 3.61million, with a corresponding increase in tourism spend of seven per cent, from £159.16million to £169.61million.