Rain washes away £200m on tourism

Tourism leaders say rain meant Cornwall missed a good opportunity

The tourism industry in Devon and Cornwall has lost an estimated £200m so far this year because of bad weather.

South West Tourism said the rain had put people off coming to the region, reducing income by 10%.

It also said the economic downturn meant people were spending less when they did come.

Britain had its wettest August since 2004 with Devon and Cornwall getting 179% of the 1971-2000 average and Cornwall 157% say the Met Office.

Malcolm Bell, chief executive of South West Tourism, said: "Tourism is a massive industry for Cornwall, it's worth about £1.5bn.

"We could have done with a good summer this year. We had an opportunity to capture a lot of extra business with the credit downturn and people not travelling abroad.

"But in that six weeks of the summer we are weather dependent and everyone in the industry knows that is when you need fair weather and we don't need the rain we have had."