Had a marketing team sat down to invent the ideal tourist region they would have been hard pressed to think of a better combination. Hardly surprisingly, the West is Britain's most popular and best-loved tourist region. British holidaymakers are more likely to head West than any other part of the country while the region has consistently been among the top three visited centres by overseas tourists.
Tourism is big business in the West.
But it is also a rapidly-changing and increasingly sophisticated industry. People are taking more, but shorter breaks, often outside the traditional holiday periods. At the same time expectations of standards of accommodation and service are rising. The changes will be introduced by 1999. Occupancy rates, according to Center Parcs, are 93 per cent - way above the average for the sector and around a quarter of a million visitors, mainly from the UK, stay there each year.