Royal honeymoon rumour boosts Isles of Scilly tourism

Buckingham Palace has refused to comment on the couple's honeymoon destination

The website promoting tourism for the Isles of Scilly has had thousands of extra hits amid speculation Prince William and Kate Middleton could honeymoon there.

Visits to the official tourism website have spiked heavily, with people trying to find out more about the islands.

One day last week, the Simply Scilly website received 78,000 hits - nearly three times its normal traffic.

Previous holiday

Downloads of the official holiday brochure have also doubled.

Interest has come from around the UK, mainland Europe and the United States.

Prince William, 28, spent a family holiday on Scilly in 1989 with Prince Charles, Princess Diana and his brother Prince Harry.

His wedding to 29-year-old Kate Middleton will take place on 29 April at Westminster Abbey, but Buckingham Palace has said it could not comment on the couple's honeymoon destination.

St Mary's is one of Scilly's five inhabited islands

The Isles of Scilly are made up of five inhabited islands - St Mary's, St Martins, St Agnes, Tresco and Bryher with a combined population of about 2,000.

The islands are situated about 28 miles (45km) south west of Land's End in Cornwall.

Tourism officials said it was too early to tell if the interest shown would translate into bookings, but they were delighted the story had provided a boost in terms of people looking at the islands.