TOURISTS are coming back to the Kennet district in droves and the area is enjoying its most lucrative season for seven years, say council bosses.

Bed and breakfast operators in the district are putting up no vacancy signs and tourist information centres have been struggling to find enough accommodation for visitors who come to them.

In the last 12 months, Devizes Visitor Centre had 41,393 people through its doors, while Marlborough tourist information centre coped with 16,099 visitors. Avebury tourist information centre had just under 8,000 inquiries, but it has not been running for a full year yet.

Kairen Kellard, Kennet District Council's tourism development manager, said: "We have seen a marked difference this summer. Visitor figures plummeted in the wake of the foot and mouth outbreak and the September 11 attack in America, but that has now been reversed and we are welcoming more American visitors than ever before."

It is not only Americans who have found their way back to mid-Wiltshire. Australians, Canadians, Germans, Italians, French and Japanese are coming to Kennet in large numbers to enjoy the countryside and ancient monuments.

Marlborough has seen the return of Dutch tourists, who shunned Britain when the strong pound slashed the buying power of their guilders.

British holidaymakers are also giving up the unequal struggle against airport queues and dodgy package deals and exchanging them for coach tours of the West Country and cycle trips along the towpath of the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Kennet's principal attractions remain ancient monuments like Avebury stone circle, Silbury Hill and West Kennett Long Barrow, but in recent years they have almost been eclipsed by the regular appearance of crop circles.

Crop circle watchers converge on the district each year and conventions and conferences are regularly being staged in the area, from where they can adjourn to visit the latest crop formation almost as soon as it has been reported.

Now that its £29 million overhaul is complete, the Kennet and Avon Canal is attracting an increasing number of holidaymakers each year and around 600 canal boats are moored along the length of the canal in Kennet at any one time.

But there is always room for improvement and Mrs Kellard knows all too well where Kennet's limitations lie when it comes to attracting more people.

She said: "We tend to attract the empty nesters people with two incomes and no family yet, as well as older people whose families have grown up and left home.

"What we need to do is develop facilities that will attract more families to the district. We have no theme parks, though some people might think that was not such a bad thing."

Kennet is working in partnership with the National Trust and the Youth Hostelling Association to build a youth hostel, the first one in Kennet, at West Kennett Farm, near Marlborough. The new hostel will not only attract young people to the area, but anyone of any age who enjoys walking or cycling.

And Kennet's tourism department is not content to let tourists come to them.

They frequently erect a stand, funded by a £5,000 grant from the Regional Development Agency, at international tourism exhibitions. The next one will be at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham at the end of September.

Tourism is not just about showing off the own lovely area to the rest of the world. It earns the district an annual income of £67 million and supports the equivalent of 1,300 full-time jobs.

At the same time, the district council's tourism budget is under pressure and will have to find savings this year if the council tax rise is to be kept to a much more reasonable level.

So the accent is now on e-commerce, informing potential visitors of the wonders of Kennet over the Internet rather than on waiting for them to pop into the local tourist information centre.

But Mrs Kellard insists that the council is not about to kill the golden goose just as it begins to lay enough eggs to boost an economy badly hit by the slump in farm incomes.

Mrs Kellard said: "The changes envisaged will benefit Kennet, the businesses involved in the tourism industry and our visitors."