Ludlow is to feature in a series of television adverts as part of a £25 million campaign to bring more visitors to the West Midlands.

The town has been filmed for the first-ever regional television adverts created to attract UK tourists as part of a £1 million media campaign.

Ludlow Food Festival is highlighted in the same advert as Staffordshire’s Alton Towers theme park.

Other adverts have been created for Stratford and Warwick Castle.

A seven-point £25 million action plan to boost tourism, funded by Advantage West Midlands, was today being launched by Regional Minister Ian Austin and Brian Summers, the chairman of Tourism West Midlands.

It includes a £1 million Celebration of Imagination Festival and Event Programme, celebrating the region’s wide range of significant anniversaries in 2009 including the birth of Charles Darwin, the smelting of iron ore in Coalbrookdale and the birth of the modern Olympic movement’s founder William Penny Brookes.

A new partnership between the airport, hotels, theatres, shopping centres and attractions to promote short “city-breaks” from elsewhere in Britain and Europe is also being created as well as new partnerships between major attractions on joint promotions and ticket offers, making it easier for visitors to get information and book tickets on-line.

Mr Austin said: “We’ve got world-class attractions, first-class shopping, fantastic theatres and beautiful countryside here in the West Midlands.

“Tourism is our fourth largest industry bringing in £6 billion each year to the West Midlands, supporting 115,000 jobs across 30,000 companies. The business tourism sector is worth another £6.8 billion on its own.

“The downturn is having a real impact and our action plan sets out the real help we’re providing to get the industry through the recession, with our first ever TV advertisements, a major campaign to attract more conferences and events and more city-breaks.

“I want to increase tourism in the region, make sure we bring more visitors to the West Midlands, boost our economy and create more jobs.”

By Business Editor Amy Bould