THE tourism industry in Herefordshire has been neglected for too long and has suffered from under-investment, business leaders say.

A director at one of the most iconic hotels in Hereford fears the true potential of tourism in the county and its surrounds isn’t being reached.

Christian Dangerfield from the Green Dragon Hotel in Broad Street said in Herefordshire, as well as Shropshire, Powys, Monmouthshire and the Forest of Dean, tourism is worth £2 billion a year and employs about 35,000 people.

“Twenty-five million people actually come to our definition of the Marches, which includes Powys, every year, it’s just they’re spending much less than the national averages,” he said.

“We’re missing out on about £1 billion of lost revenue. So the opportunity cost of not getting our tourism economy to where we want it to be is about £1 billion every year.”

Mr Dangerfield was one of the 28 speakers at the Marches Tourism Forum held at the hotel on Tuesday, with 135 delegates in attendance.

Of the other business people to take part in speeches and discussions, chief executive of Rural Media Nic Millington said the charity has a key role to play in tourism.

“Rural Media is a film and television production company and then a charity working with lots of Herefordshire communities, charities, trusts and foundations,” he said.

“We just feel Rural Media can play a really quite special and unique role in moving the visitor economy and tourism for the county and for the Marches forward.

“It’s promoting the county and we think that many aspects of life and communities in the county are poorly understood in some cases, they have a lot to celebrate but don’t really have the means to express that.

“A lot of our work is working in the city, with the market towns and with outlying communities and interest groups to see if they can be using the services and facilities of rural media to really speak about what’s special about their lives.”

Among the groups to have supported the tourism industry is Eat Sleep Live Herefordshire, an independent tourism marketing organisation.

Its support for businesses is in addition to the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce, who have funded the industry in a variety of ways.

Together with the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership, Rural Media were able to create videos showing what Herefordshire has to offer.