A TOURISM company advertising walking holidays on the Malvern Hills is offering accommodation to those who book in 'nearby' Wiltshire!

Diamond Holidays of Market Harborough is promoting the three-day breaks at the end of September.

They include two days' guided walks on the Hills but walkers will be brought to Malvern and taken back to Swindon each day by coach - a round trip of some 100 miles. They will be staying in the Blunsdon House Hotel, just north of the Wiltshire town.

Kevin Riley, Diamond's managing director, said the company had a good relationship with the hotel, built up over some years, and it offered a good deal.

He said: "Our customers are very concerned with price and quality - value for money - and we have found they won't pay extra even to stay nearer. The Blunsdon House Hotel offers us very good rates."

Diamond is charging its customers £119 per person for the three-day break.

Reaction from those in Malvern who rely on tourism was philosophical.

Nigel Thomas, manager of the Foley Arms Hotel, Worcester Road, said: "We tend to be booked up at the weekends, with events such as the Three Counties Show, so we cannot accommodate large parties such as these. The company is probably wanting cheaper rates than we can offer as well."

Julie Josey, owner of the Mount Pleasant Hotel, Belle Vue Terrace, said: "My view is that if we can accommodate tourist parties, we should. However, the package that this particular company put together simply does not pay us enough.

"The other problem is that very few of the hotels in Malvern are big enough to handle coach parties, which can be up to 50. Operators do not like splitting their parties up between different hotels."

Sharon Grey, Malvern Hills District Council's head of tourism, said: "It is disappointing that this company hasn't chosen to accommodate its customers here, but let's look on the bright side.

"The people who visit Malvern may well come back, and if they do, they will probably want to stay here instead of spending hours on the coach each day."

She said her department would be contacting Diamond Holidays to discuss the possibilities of using local hotels.

Plans for a large new hotel in Malvern Link were approved by MHDC last October.

Entrepreneur John Williams, from Colwall, envisages a complex with up to 80 rooms and a Roman-style health spa.

The plans have been held up by legal discussion over the provision of a cycle path. Mr Williams said this week that discussions were still under way.