THERE comes a point when the inhabitants of any tourism-promoting town abruptly start questioning if they actually want to attract 'outsiders' to their pleasant surroundings.

Initiatives like the intriguingly-named Baht 'At Country Tourism Partnership (not quite as well known as Bronte Country, Heartbeat Country and James Herriot Country) are breaking their necks to revitalise local tourism after such setbacks as the 2001 foot and mouth disease crisis and the greater public enthusiasm for spending money abroad in the sun-guaranteed Mediterranean.

At any gathering of Ilkley residents, most are quick and proud to voice their support for keeping Ilkley's reputation as a day trip or longer-term tourism destination. Too often, though, there is the feeling that lurking underneath the smiling, welcoming exterior of many inhabitants, is an intolerance of the very day trippers and tourists who boost local business and want to share in the delights of being in a Britain in Bloom-winning town.

Welcome are the country-loving couples, the walkers, the cyclists and the families whose children love the fresh air and green surroundings. Welcome also are those who support the hotels and local businesses by choosing Ilkley as a place to stay, shop, or spend time. But it does not overcome the simmering resentment that can most often be seen at the end of the very crowded and sunny summer day during the school holidays, when visitors visibly attract the glares and suspicion of local people.

Some of us might well have forgotten that it was, after all, tourism - largely in the form of the Victorian enthusiasm for the 'water cure' - which essentially turned Ilkley from a little-known rural place to a prestige residential area and a thriving town in its own right.