Somerset County Council and Somerset Tourism Association are looking to boost the local economy by attracting more Chinese tourists to the region.

China Holidays managing director Stephanie Cheng has been on a two-day familiarisation tour of the county in order to see some of the visitor experiences on offer. It is estimated that every Chinese tourist spends around £1,000 in the local economy, and Somerset authorities are working with their Chinese counterparts to promote the region.

John Turner, director of Somerset Tourism Association and Somerset ambassador for UKinbound, said: "Currently Somerset has 0.5 per cent of the market share of Chinese tourists. "If we could only increase this to just 2.5 per cent, this could add hundreds of thousands pounds of spending to our economy and could mean as many as 10,000 new job."