Easter season kicks off with bang - tourism bosses

Laura Mounce said she was "absolutely overwhelmed" by visitors' responses to the new tulip field

Tourism bosses have said Easter bookings in Cornwall have kicked off "with a bang".

Chairman of Visit Cornwall Jon Hyatt said the county had seen an increase in late bookings due to the spell of warm weather that touched most of the UK at the start of the Easter holidays.

He said the projected total visitor spend during Easter was £100m and noted there had already been a spike in both day-trippers and overnight stays.

Lucy Vickery, co-owner of holiday accommodation Macdonalds Farm near Padstow, said they had seen a 20% increase in last-minute bookings last week due to the sunny weather.

The field has been planted with 250,000 tulip bulbs

She added: "We've never seen that before in Easter and it's thanks to the sun."

Laura Mounce, director of Strawberry Fields Farm Shop in Lifton on the Devon-Cornwall border, said the recent warmth had helped its newest venture - a three-acre tulip field planted with 250,000 bulbs.

She said the flowers had begun to bloom and were "quite robust" but the venture's success was "very much in the hands of nature".

"It's a bit of a gamble, a bit of a risk," she added.