MORE people are coming to visit Tenbury – that is the view of the town’s tourism chiefs who say that the economic downturn is helping visitor numbers.

Bernard Morgan, who is part of ‘Tenbury Events’ and one of the people behind the town’s Tourist Information Centre, is encouraged by the figures.

“We believe that the visitor numbers are up by at least 15 per cent compared with last year and this is probably a conservative estimate,” said Mr Morgan.

“Our experience in Tenbury seems in line with what is happening in other places. It seems that this has been a good year for tourism in Britain.”

He said with money tight, it seemed more people were deciding to holiday at home and there was a tendency to go for days out rather than for longer breaks.

Tourism experts also believe that exchange rates are making some overseas holiday destinations in Europe expensive.

Later this month, Tenbury will stage its biggest attraction of the year, the Apple Fest, and the Mistletoe Festival is also planned in September.

However, the number of people at the Tenbury Show in August was down on last year because of the weather and because the event in 2008 was a special anniversary show.

“A lot of work is being done to promote Tenbury to tourists and we appear to be having some success. It is reward for many people who put in a lot of hard work,” added Mr Morgan.