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Staff recruited to welcome tourists to Yorkshire during this summer's Tour de France have been banned from using traditional northern greetings such as 'love'.

Thousands of people working as meet-and-greet Tour Makers during the high-profile event have received an online training manual advising against calling visitors 'mate' or 'darling' in case it causes offence.

The tutorial tells staff helping with the up to three million people expected to visit for the opening two stages of the world's most famous cycle race on July 5 and 6: 'Be confident and naturally friendly.

Gearing up: Yorkshire is getting ready to host the Tour de France in July

'Avoid using words such as "mate", "love" or "darling" - they may sound friendly to you, but they could offend some people."

One volunteer, who asked not to be named, said: 'I must admit I was a bit surprised when I read the advice.

'I can see why it makes sense but it's going to need a lot of concentration for every single one of us to stop calling people "love".'

Organisers of the Tour de France's visit to Yorkshire have insisted the last thing they want to do is tone down the county's identity.

Tourism boom: Local businesses, such as this cafe, are getting read for the up to three million visitors this summer

Welcome to Yorkshire, the tourism agency which brought the opening stages of the Tour to Yorkshire, said it wanted to do everything it could to promote Yorkshire's identity.

But a spokesman added: 'The Grand Depart of the Tour de France will celebrate everything Yorkshire, including our dialect but we want to be careful not to cause confusion for our overseas visitors.'

Around 12,000 Tour Makers will be helping out with the first two stages of the Tour in Yorkshire and stage three, from Cambridge to London.

The role has been modelled on the highly successful Games Makers at the London 2012 Olympics and will involve guiding visitors and manning the route.

The Tour de France 2014 starts in the centre of Leeds on July 5 with stage one winding through the Yorkshire Dales to Harrogate.

Stage two, the day after, goes from York to Sheffield and the third stage starts in Cambridge and finishes on The Mall, in central London.