The tourism industry in Pembrokeshire has not been as badly affected by the Foot and Mouth outbreak as many parts of Wales, but it certainly hasn't escaped altogether.

Even though there have been no cases of the disease in the county, 48 per cent of businesses reported a decrease in business over Easter. The situation was much worse in North Pembrokeshire were 74 per cent reported less than normal trade compared with 35 per cent on the south coast.

Advance bookings for the summer are also poor, with 47 per cent of businesses indicating that their summer bookings are below what they would normally expect to have at this time of year.

The message being voiced throughout the county isn't a call for compensation, however, but for normal trade to be resumed.

The Pembrokeshire Marketing Consortium was launched in April to try to achieve just that, to promote Pembrokeshire as an attractive destination to bring the visitors back.

The consortium was the idea of Matthew Evans, of Coastal Cottages and Activity Wales, and it is now spearheading the move to resume normal service. Some of the consortium's 32 partners include Pembrokeshire County Council, the Wales Tourist Board, Oakwood, Folly Farm, Frank B. Mason and all the tourism associations in the county.

A fighting fund of over £70,000 was collected by the partners and has been used to fund activity over the past five weeks. Last minute advertising space has been bought in most of the national weekend newspapers, generating over 4,000 responses so far, who have all received comprehensive brochure packs on Pembrokeshire.

The consortium, with overwhelming support from the tourism industry in Pembrokeshire, is now hoping to expand these activities substantially.

A bid has been submitted to Pembrokeshire County Council to use some of the Foot and Mouth relief fund, given to the council by the Welsh Assembly, for marketing activity.

Said Mr. Evans: "A comprehensive campaign has been drawn up to encourage visitors to come between now and the beginning of the school summer holidays as well as to boost the advance bookings for the peak weeks.

"An autumn campaign is planned to extend the business into the autumn and winter to try to compensate for lost spring business with some additional promotional activity to help kick start next year.

"The campaign will include a mixture of targeted marketing initiatives, including the distribution of several million mini-guides to Pembrokeshire to be inserted in national newspapers and specialist activity magazines throughout England, Wales and Ireland."

Readers will be encouraged to request the comprehensive Pembrokeshire holiday guide or visit the http://www.visitpembrokeshire.com">www.visitpembrokeshire.com website, where all the Wales Tourist Board inspected accommodation in Pembrokeshire will be listed.

Other activity might include a two-week long radio challenge targeting workers in London which will result in two office teams being brought down to Pembrokeshire for a head to head contest, reported daily on the radio. A CD with video clips of Pembrokeshire and a TV campaign have also been considered.