...comes from Keith Buchanan, the co-ordinator of the "Your Countryside, You're Welcome'' campaign which is launched today. As the drive to woo people back to rural Britain gets underway, he says:

"Essentially people stopped visiting the countryside last year in large numbers and it had a very serious impact on businesses.

"There is no doubt that with the combination of foot-and-mouth and September 11, it was a double whammy and foreign visitor numbers came right down.

"This consensus came through in both the rural taskforce and the Haskins report that there should be a campaign to get people back.

"So there will be thousands of events up and down the country.''