by Business Editor Trevor Sturgess

Tourism chiefs are capitalising on the strong euro to step up their campaign for more European visitors this year.

VisitKent and tourism businesses have teamed up to particularly target France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

They aim to build on the first year of VisitKent’s European campaign that achieved 11 travel trade familiarisation and 34 press trips generating coverage worth around £1 million.

Visit Kent and local tourism businesses gathered on Friday at Leeds Castle to plan a new campaign aimed at attracting European visitors to Kent, with on-territory experts from The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

There have been more than 51,000 visits to new French and German micro websites, with three e-newsletters sent to 17,500 European contacts. Twenty-eight operators are now featuring Kent in their programmes.

Sandra Matthews-Marsh, VisitKent chief executive, said: "Ease of access and the strong Euro make Kent an increasingly attractive destination. Add to this our on territory experts in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and France, and the great support we have from our Kent tourism partners and cross channel operators and I am confident we will be welcoming many more European visitors to Kent in 2009."

The new campaign involves the creation of a new Dutch microsite and promotion of Kent and Medway at European exhibitions.