DEVIZES was put on the tourism map at the weekend as influential coach operators from all over the country pledged to make the town a stopping point.

Tony Aldridge from the Devizes Area Tourism Partnership said: "It was very positive. The operators were amazed at what Devizes has to offer and they didn't want to leave.

"One coach firm that stops at Lacock at the moment said he wants to stop in Devizes in future and lots of others were talking about including Devizes.

"I am confident we will see a lot more tourists in the future which is great for the economy of the town."

The partnership organised a number of events to co-incide with English Tourism Week starting with the visit by 25 senior coach and bus operators from the Confederation of Passenger Transport.

They arrived in a vintage bus at Wadworths on Saturday lunchtime where they were greeted by Mayor Sarah Bridewell and Simon Jacobs chairman of the Devizes Area Board and members of the tourism partnership.

The choice of bus turned out to be fitting as back in the 50s and 60s it had been on the number 50 route between Devizes and Bath.

One of the highlights of the day for many of the visitors was the chance to sample Devizes cheesecake made by Giovanni Campanella at his cafe Dolcipani.

Mr Aldridge said: "The first cake was so popular I had to go back to Giovanni and ask him to make a second one. It was little touches like this that really made the day special."

The visitors had a tour of the brewery, the canal museum and a canal boat trip on the Kenavon Venture. They later re-boarded the bus to see the Caen Hill flight of locks and The Green before having dinner at The Castle Hotel.

The chairman of the coach organisation Bill Hiron said: "Devizes has organised a brilliant day and has set a standard of hospitality that will be hard to beat."

On Sunday locals had the chance to join two free walking tours of the town under the guidance of historian John Girvan. Mr Aldridge said: "The participants were delighted and saw parts of they hadn't realised existed, and wanted to spend a lot longer at each stage than the sample tour allowed."

Today a luxury coach will be parked outside Travelwise in Sidmouth Street to encourage coach travel and promote the independent travel agents.