There is an eerie silence at the Seven Sisters Country Park.

The car park at Exceat, normally packed with ramblers and day trippers, is empty and the road quiet.

Sally Davies, owner of Exceat Farmhouse tearoom and bed and breakfast, waits anxiously for customers to fill her empty tables.

Throughout Sussex, many countryside pubs, restaurants, guesthouses and attractions are on the brink of collapse as visitors, fearful of spreading foot-and-mouth disease, stay at home.

Ms Davies, who has spent nine years building up her business, said the five tourism businesses in the Cuckmere Valley were bracing themselves for losses of between £50,000 and £60,000 by the end of Easter.

Lewes District Council estimates the village of Alfriston, normally a favourite with locals and visitors for pub lunches, will be £100,000 down on business by the end of March.

With Easter approaching it is make-or-break time for many businesses and attractions, which are now reopening in time for the school holidays.

Ms Davies said: "We went from being really frantically busy to having no one come in at all after the first week of foot-and-mouth. I went from taking £300 a day to about £15 or £20. It's sickening, devastating.

"The second week it really hit me and I was a wreck. I was frightened. I have worked nine years on this business and suddenly it looks as if I'm about to lose it."

It is especially the small businesses, stranded like desert islands in the middle of the countryside, which are suffering and Ms Davies believes contradictory messages spread by the Government have contributed to their predicament.

She said at first, many locals believed it was their civic duty to stay away and it is only now that Prime Minister Tony Blair is encouraging people to support the tourist industry.

In Sussex, which has so far escaped foot-and-mouth disease, some areas such as Friston Forest were being reopened this weekend but all countryside footpaths remain shut.

Ms Davies said: "Some of the businesses around here can't go on much longer. To begin with, the Government leapt in and told everyone to stay away and most did.

"People have a lot of sympathy for the farmers and it is terrible for them to lose their livelihoods like this but little thought was given to the tourism industry."

Ms Davies wants Sussex councils to consider re-opening some paths and to clarify the risk of the disease being spread if people stay within their local area.

Jackie Ellis, chairman of Tourism East Sussex and tourism and arts manager for Lewes District Council, said many overseas visitors had cancelled holidays in Sussex.

She feels many of the cancellations were due to the mistaken idea the whole countryside is shut for business.

Mrs Ellis said: "I think local people, let alone overseas visitors, are confused about the different messages regarding the countryside.

"Just because footpaths are closed does not mean towns, villages and pubs are shut. They need support."

The tourism industry is worth £608 million and provides 23,000 jobs inEast Sussex but Mrs Ellis believes most companies are 75 to 80 per cent down on trade.

Caught between the farmers, desperate to stop foot-and-mouth entering Sussex and the tourism businesses, many of which may go bust within the next few months, are the land managers.

Risks Paul Walton, Seven Sisters Country Park area manager for the South Downs Conservation Board, said: "If we got the disease in this park, all the animals within a three-kilometre radius would have to be slaughtered and there would be no movement in or out of the area.

"For the farmers, closing the area is a risk worth taking but businesses relying on tourism tell us they can't go on much longer."

In West Sussex, it is a similar story.

Roger Budden, tourism manager for West Sussex County Council, said takings for attractions in urban areas were down between 30 and 60 per cent and in rural areas between 60 and 80 per cent.

He said: "We don't want to see any businesses wiped out so we are looking at ways to help through rate relief and deferring payments. There is also talk of discounts on advertising for people who have been really badly affected.

"The message is you can still go out into the countryside and enjoy the pubs, villages and attractions, just don't go on the rights of way."

For information about which attractions are open, log on to www.westsussex.gov.uk or www.sussextourism.org.uk/FMD.htm For all the latest news, reviews and sports, log on to the Argus website at www.thisisbrightonandhove.co.uk