real ale enthusiasts are backing a national campaign aimed at getting more people into pubs. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) launches its first-ever National Pubs Week tomorrow.

And members of the Keighley and Craven branch are staging a tour of Skipton town centre hostelries on Tuesday in support of the venture.

They invite other tipplers to join them -- at the Railway at 7.30pm, or the Cock & Bottle at 8pm. Statistics compiled by CAMRA show that more than one quarter of adults never visit a pub and 20 hostelries a month close around the country.

Mike Benner, CAMRA's head of campaigns, said: "If this trend continues, Britain's unique pubs will disappear very quickly. The aim of National Pubs Week is simple -- to encourage people to visit them more regularly.

The slogan is 'There's a pub for everyone', and we seek to highlight the enormous variety of pubs in the UK.

"We are not only supporting the quaint country pubs but also community and town centre establishments, as we want all of the pub industry to benefit from this initiative."