A would-be visitor cancelled his plans to visit Brighton and Hove after spending £10 on a tourist hotline and decided on Spain instead.

Estate agent Ray Woolford, 36, planned to spend the bank holiday weekend in Brighton and Hove, perhaps spending hundreds of pounds.

Instead, he is jetting off to Barcelona following a frustrating experience with the city's tourism telephone line.

Mr Woolford estimates he spent at least £10 making a series of calls to the premium rate information service, which costs 50p per minute.

He was put on hold several times but never managed to speak to a tourist information officer.

Mr Woolford, who lives in London, said: "It's a joke. I wanted to book a place to stay for a few of us to come down for the weekend but I didn't know what would be available. So I called the tourist information line.

"I was on hold for several minutes before a message came on saying there was no one available to take my call.

"That happened a few times and eventually I just gave up and decided to book a cheap flight to Spain.

"After the third time I realised it would be cheaper to buy a train ticket and find out for myself in person than spend any longer on the phone."

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: "The charge was introduced to pay for more staff and a better service. Before, only ten per cent of calls got through.

"Now 75 per cent of calls get through and most of the others find the information they need in the recorded service.

"The service is better than it has ever been and the evidence shows people are prepared to pay the price of a couple of sticks of rock to get it."

The average cost of a call was less than 90p but she admitted the phone lines had been particularly busy in the run up to Easter.