WINCHESTER Tory hopeful, Steve Brine, has met with some of the city’s key figures in the tourism industry.

The meeting, which coincided with British Tourism Week, was organised by the Winchester Museums Service and included representatives from the cathedral and the Intech science centre at Morn Hill.

Mr Brine, who is the prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate for Winchester, was shown round the city museum before discussing the challenges facing tourism and hearing how the recession was affecting some of the city’s key tourist attractions.

“Winchester has it all and clearly we are always going to attract large numbers of tourists to the city, but we are not immune to the downturn in the economy and we have to remember that other cities, such as Salisbury, Bath and Chichester, are very much our competitors,” he said.

“I was pleased to see inside the museum again and to hear of the excellent work Sher Kent and her team are doing to attract large numbers of Winchester residents and city visitors.

“It was fascinating to hear about the success of the cathedral’s Christmas market and its plans for 2009, but I was astonished to learn how few people were actually working on what has become an absolutely central pillar of Winchester’s success as a destination of choice during the critical Christmas period.

“The Intech Science Centre is, in many ways, a hidden gem in the Winchester tourism scene and I can see immediately we have a great deal of work to do to link it more to the city centre attractions.

“Above all, I take away from the meeting a clear message that Winchester is competing with destinations in the area that have every bit as much to offer as we do and that have their eye on our tourists, backed by much better-resourced tourist operations.”

As well as museum services manager, Sher Kent, Mr Brine met Charlotte Barnaville, from the marketing office at Winchester Cathedral, and Andy Lane, marketing manager at Intech.