The Queen will host a reception at Buckingham Palace

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as the other senior Royals, will visit regions throughout Britain to publicise attractions and beauty spots.

It will be the first time so many members of the Royal Family have got involved in such a themed day to support an aspect of British life.

Among the attractions they will visit are a theme park, miniature railway, farm, hotel, caravan park, theatre, museums, tea rooms, and several places of natural beauty.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "This underlines the importance of tourism to the national economy.

"The wide variety of venues being visited shows how much the UK has to offer tourists both from home and abroad."

Design Museum

The royal tourism day, on 10 June, will feature visits by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to Legoland in Windsor, and the British and London visitor centres.

The Queen will also visit the Museum in Docklands, while the Duke visits the capital's Design Museum and the Museum of London.

The Prince of Wales will travel to Edinburgh where he will visit several tourist attractions including Gladstone's Land and the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre.

He will also go to Linlithgow Palace in West Lothian.

In the evening, the Queen will host a reception at Buckingham Palace for representatives of those working in the tourism industry in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, while the Prince of Wales will host a similar reception in Scotland.

Among the places to be visited by the Princess Royal are Druisillas Zoo Park and a National Trust property in Alfriston, Sussex, and the Royal Navy Submarine Museum and Museum of Naval Firepower in Gosport, Hampshire.

Legoland in Windsor will receive a royal visit

The Duke of York will go to the Lake District where he will take in the Rheged Centre at Penrith, the Theatre by the Lake at Keswick, as well as a youth hostel and a pub in the village of Ambleside.

The British tourism industry has been badly hit by the 11 September terrorist attacks in America, the foot-and-mouth outbreak in the UK, and the Iraq war.

It is thought these factors alone have cost the industry an estimated �3bn in lost revenues.

And the recent Sars epidemic has also reduced the number of visitors from south east Asia.

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the UK, being worth about �76bn in 2002, and contributing 4.5% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Last year, there were just under 24 million overseas visitors to the UK, who spent 11.9bn.