Visitors could be flocking to Brighton and Hove in record numbers this summer if the popularity of the city's tourism web site is anything to go by.
About 70,000 visitors logged on to www.visitbrighton.com in March - making it the site's most successful month yet.
Figures show a dramatic rise in the number of potential visitors using the internet to find out about the city. From 2003 to 2004 the number of visitors to visitbrighton.com soared from 75,000 to 450,000.
Brighton and Hove City Council has scaled down production of brochures to concentrate on promotion via the web.
Research has shown 39 per cent of people making inquiries from the brochure actually visit the city, compared to 58 per cent who used the web site.
Adam Bates, the council's head of tourism, said: "The web's the natural place to promote a modern cosmopolitan place like this. Posting reams of paper in the form of brochures is old-fashioned and eco-hostile - hardly very Brighton!"
The success of the web site has been helped by promotions it offers with local businesses.
The Brighton's Alive campaign gives people hefty discounts at hotels and restaurants when they book tickets for the Brighton Festival or any of Brighton's major venues.
April 20, 2005
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