MILLIONS of people around the world have watched Swansea since its football team hit the Premier League and the city is catching people's eyes.

Tourism partners in the bay area have been working hard to make the most of the Swans being in football's top tier — and it has been paying dividends.

Hotels are booming and Swansea Bay's official website has had more than half a million hits since the soccer season kicked off. That's up 100,000 on this time last year.

Graham Thomas, Swansea Council's cabinet member for culture, recreation and tourism, said: "The Premier League is an enormous opportunity for us to share our beautiful home city with the rest of the UK and the rest of the world.

"Our staff have been working especially hard with partners like the Swans, local businesses and the Liberty Stadium to make the most of the city's Premier League status and raise Swansea's profile, and these statistics are hugely encouraging.

"Many thousands of football fans have already been spending a few days in the Swansea Bay area based around fixtures at the Liberty Stadium and this has boosted the local economy."

Figures show more than 536,000 page views at www.visitswanseabay.com since July, 2011, a 20 per cent increase year on year.

Swansea Council has been spearheading a marketing campaign since the Swans were promoted to the Premier League to try to encourage as many football fans as possible to spend a few days in the Swansea Bay area when their team is in town.

Much of the activity has redirected people to the official Swansea Bay destination website. Some of the activities include promotional posters that went up on London Underground trains in the build-up to home matches against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea.

Online graphics have also been produced in the lead up to each fixture at the Liberty Stadium, such as the Crouch- o-Metre which compared centre-forward Peter Crouch's height with Swans players like little Nathan Dyer and major local landmarks like the Meridian Tower, and football fans were then encouraged to measure themselves in "Crouches".

The graphic became an online hit and everyone who saw it was redirected to www.visitswanseabay.com to have a look at what Swansea Bay has to offer.

The marketing activities have also generated more than 2,300 requests for the Swansea Bay Holiday Guide and helped increase the number of Visit Swansea Bay's Facebook fans to more than 4,700.

Other statistics show more than 2,600 visits to a fans' corner section of the website and more than 1,800 Visit Swansea Bay followers on Twitter.

More than 2,500 people have also downloaded the Visit Swansea Bay app on their iPhones. And there is evidence to show people are doing more than just browsing online. Room occupancy, according to PKF Hotel Consultancy, is up 7.8 per cent — compared with Cardiff which has seen a 14.5 per cent drop.

Mandi Gwynne, from the Swansea Marriott Hotel, said: "The boost to our revenue has been significant with team members and supporters alike staying in the hotel."

Mr Thomas added: "The key now is to continue with the imaginative ideas to attract even more people here and further help Swansea businesses."

helen.keates@swwmedia.co.uk