The Heroes Welcome initiative, which was launched in 2008 by the South Bay Traders Association, with support from the Evening News, is backed by 18 towns around the country and organisers have confirmed they are in negotiations with four more venues to extend the project.

Officials in Weeton, near Blackpool - where the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards) are based - and in Beverley and Weston Super Mare are set to take up the scheme with Brighton and Hove also planning to show its support.

And the scheme has received another boost after Dorchester, in Dorset, revealed it was backing the campaign.

Heroes Welcome offers Army, Royal Navy and RAF personnel and veterans, discounts at hotels, restaurants and a number of businesses in participating towns and has its own website with a Facebook group of more than 1,300 members.

John Senior, a former major with the 16 UK Air Assault Brigade, is co-ordinator of the scheme and said he was delighted it was attracting backing across the country.

He said: “The support has been absolutely fantastic and it’s brilliant to see that other towns have bought into what Scarborough has organised.

“The scheme is good for the soldiers and their families and also reminds people that we shouldn’t forget members of our armed forces during the year.

“We are always encouraging new towns to get involved and we provide them with the basic materials but it is up to them to run the scheme.

“Dorchester have come on board independently after hearing about the scheme during a talk I did at an Armed Forces Day conference in Birmingham in October.

“The scheme is really biting in now and it is great to see it becoming so dynamic throughout the country.”

In 2008, Heroes Welcome was integral in giving around 350 troops from the Catterick Garrison-based 4th Mechanised Brigade free entry to Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo and providing Corporal Tomos Stringer and his wife with a two-day stay in Scarborough after a Surrey hotel turned him away when he showed his ID card.

Mr Senior, who is director of the Senior Group, added he hoped the continuing success of the initiative would provide Scarborough’s Armed Forces Day with a real boost.

“It is nice to see that it is alive and kicking and that support for our Armed Forces is still coming in, especially with the Armed Forces Day coming up on June 26.

“The town will be set up to welcome soldiers and their families to the town and give them a good day, which is what this is all about.”

The scheme is backed by Scarborough Council, the Forum for Tourism, Scarborough Hospitality, Scarborough Urban Renaissance and First TransPennine Express and any businesses and organisations who want to get involved should contact John Senior on (01723) 360922.