MONSTER trucks and ceramics have helped pull in visitors to Derby and increase interest in the city.

City council tourism chiefs said there has been a huge increase in the number of hits on the visitor website, www.visitderby.co.uk.

In 2011, the site attracted 41.3% more unique visitors than the previous year, totalling more than 111,500.

People also stayed on the site longer and visited more pages, with total page views up by almost 60%.

Tourism officers at the council put the increase down to seasonal campaigns promoting the city and events unique to Derby, such as the Titanic exhibition at Royal Crown Derby and the Monster Truck event at Pride Park.

The leader of the council, Councillor Philip Hickson, said: "I am delighted that the Visit Derby website is proving to be such a success and that visitors are using it to plan their holidays; residents are using it to find out what's on; and tourism operators are using it as a support mechanism for their business.

"I'm confident that the website will result in increased promotion for Derby, which in turn brings more visitors to spend in Derby businesses."

The success has been boosted by a new e-mail newsletter – Visit Derby eShot – which already has more than 8,000 subscribers.

It provides a list of events for the coming weeks in Derby, hotel deals and an exclusive look at some of the city's best-kept secrets.

Anyone wanting to subscribe should e-mail tourism@derby.gov.uk.

The council and Marketing Derby have also worked to ensure that Derby comes higher up the Google ratings when people search for places to go.

Next month a separate tourism network for the private sector is due to be launched by Richard Felix to bring together firms which benefit from tourism to help promote the city.