VisitBritain's role is to promote the country's tourist attractions

Sir Michael Lickliss told the BBC's Today programme that funding for VisitBritain, a publicly-funded body, had fallen in real terms since 1997.

Figures show six million tourists came to Britain between February and April 2004 - a record for those months - yet average spend per tourist decreased.

Increased government investment would rectify this, Sir Michael said.

Shorter holidays

You don't get people to this country by accident VisitBritain's Sir Michael Lickliss

Sir Michael said visitors were spending less partly because they were tending to come for shorter breaks, but felt the trend could be reversed.

He said this could be done "by offering the best quality so that people come back on repeat visits."

Another key area, he said, was trying to attract visitors from different countries.

'Vast sums'

Although visitor figures were still good from the more traditional markets of Europe and North America, the UK must now look to market itself further afield, he said.

"The new, emerging markets now are Russia, China, Korea and the east European countries - all of our competitors are investing vast sums of money in those countries and we should be doing the same.

"You don't get people to this country by accident.

"You need to have professionals doing market research, finding out what people actually enjoy doing and then making sure they are offered that when they come to this country," Sir Michael said.

VisitBritain has received �35.5m per year in public funding since 1997 and has called for a further �21.8 million in the next government spending review.