Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire has launched a marketing campaign to boost its conferencing business.

The Indoor Summer Conference initiative includes a number of gimmicks designed around the theme "bringing the summer indoors" - such as a turfed conference table, birdsong piped through the sound system and indoor picnics.

The campaign was launched following the theme park's own research, which showed that 65 per cent of people who took part in a survey would prefer to have the option of working in an outdoor environment during the summer months because they feel they are 'missing out' on the good weather.

Dominique Sidley, head of corporate events at Alton Towers, said: "Our survey has shown that people work more productively in an outdoor setting and so we have created the indoor summer conference that will make people feel as if they truly are working outside whilst still being able to benefit from all the facilities inside.

"Besides, you never can rely on the British weather so at least we will have a guaranteed summer at Alton Towers!"

The Indoor Summer Conference is available at the Alton Towers Resort throughout the summer season, for further information visit www.altontowers.com