SWINDON'S tourism industry is suffering from a shortage of skilled workers.

But now workers out in the field are being given the chance to suggest how best to improve the situation.

As part of a massive survey, Wiltshire Tourism Skills Network is posting more than 600 question-naires to hotels, tourist attract-ions and outlets in the town later this month.

The idea is to glean views and suggestions from those who work in the trade and to come up with solutions.

Wiltshire Tourism Skills net-work representative, Nicola Beaumont, said: "In Swindon there is a shortage of skilled labour particularly chefs and customer service operatives and we're seeing a lack of interest in tourism as a career choice.

"It's seen as a last resort by a lot of people and an easy option.

"Our main priority over the coming months will be to est-ablish contacts with as many people from the industry as possible and ascertain what the issues are.

"In essence the network will act as a catalyst to identify skills needs, help facilitate appropriate training and provide support and advice on career choices."

The network is also set to team up with Swindon College and New College to help out with training.

After the results of the question-naire are known representatives from the network and the colleges will discuss ways of updating vocational tourism courses and improving students' readiness for work.

Swindon New College humanit-ies curriculum manager Geoff Haslam thought it was a great idea.

He said: "We hope this tie-up with the tourism skills network will help develop the particular needs that various firms in Swindon want from students looking for work.

"There is nothing wrong with the courses we are running now, we are merely adding a further dimension that we hadn't thought of before. The benefit of having input from people working in the tourism industry in Swindon will be enormous we will be able to find out exactly what the industry needs.

"There is enormous potential in this town and we see it as a massive growth area in years to come."

The tourism industry is worth some £421m to Wiltshire each year and tourism supports six per cent of the 110,000 jobs in Swindon. Tourists visiting Swindon spent £216m in 2000.

Among Swindon's leading tourist attractions are the Steam Museum and the Designer Outlet Village.

Around four million people visit the Outlet Village each year although the figure at Steam in the last 12 months was only 95,000.

South West Tourism Skills Network chairman, Michael Preece, said: "The events of the past year have highlighted the importance of tourism to our regional economy.

"But the world of tourism is growing increasingly competitive and it's vital that we look at initiatives that raise standards that attract and retain visitors to this region."