Day trippers coming to Suffolk each spend nearly £5 less than the national average for visitors, a major tourism conference was told yesterday.

Tourism expert James Kennell outlined what he described as a “massive priority” for the county at the Suffolk Inside Out conference, organised by events and tourism students from University Campus Suffolk.

Mr Kennell, who is programme leader for the tourism management degree course at the University of Greenwich, said that a day visitor to Suffolk currently spends £25.81 on average, against a national average of £30. In Norfolk, the average spend is £31.

“A small improvement to visitor spend will make a massive difference,” said Mr Kennell. He urged tourism businesses to be “aggressive” and ‘think Suffolk plc – not UK plc’.”

Among other speakers was Chris Scargill, from accountants Larking Gowen, who told the conference tourism in Suffolk is worth £1.8billion to the local economy annually, and provides more than 38,000 jobs.

Neil Prentice, of marketing agency White Space, said research showed that a major reason for people visiting Ipswich was because of the Suffolk countryside and coast, and he urged the county town and the rest of Suffolk to work more closely together to boost the tourism industry.