So far this year they have battled the effects of the strong pound, wet weather and endless images of slaughtered animals smouldering on pyres. Today Britain's tourism chiefs face a further setback - an outspoken guidebook to the country which condemns London as "horrifically" expensive, likens our hotels to Fawlty Towers and warns visitors to expect drunken brawls between "liquored-up lager louts".

The new Lonely Planet guide to Britain also takes swipes at some of the country's most popular attractions, condemning Land's End as "a Thatcherite monument to the triumph of crass commerce over culture" and claiming that the Shambles in York is "overrun with people [seemingly] told to buy something silly and be back on the tour bus in 15 minutes".

The authors say that on Liverpool's Mathew Street, home to the Cavern Club, visitors can hardly move due to "businesses cashing in on the Beatles phenomenon" and advise those attending the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace that they may "go away wondering what all the fuss was about". Though they describe the Millennium Bridge across the Thames as "beautiful", they say its opening and subsequent closing was the "cock-up of all cock-ups".

The book even includes traditional jibes about the weather, warning visitors to "expect rain at any time". On the plus side, say the authors: "Tourists tend to enjoy the traditional English breakfasts (the Scottish and Welsh variations can include such horrors as black pudding) because they don't eat such things often at home. If they did they would die."

In short, it does not appear to be the good publicity the industry is seeking as it tries to rally from the impact of the foot and mouth epidemic. Tourism, worth an estimated £64bn to Britain each year and employing 7% of the workforce, is believed to be losing at least £100m a week.

"I'm not sure visitors to Britain would recognise the country that Lonely Planet describe," said Richard Tobias, chief executive of the British Incoming Tourists Association. "It's obviously not helpful. It's certainly not representative of the feedback we get from visitors. In terms of hotel accommodation our prices fare very well indeed and I've certainly never been to a hotel like Fawlty Towers. Service compares favourably with Paris or Madrid. Brawls certainly are no more common than in any other European city."

But he added: "Lonely Planet has a strong following and is well-read, but I'm not sure it is taken terribly seriously by most travellers. It's amusing rather than objective."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport - which is responsible for tourism - was equally unworried, hinting that the authors had made some good points. "The tourist industry is well aware of the challenges it faces and is working hard to meet them," she said. "Lonely Planet look at the things that are unusual and off the beaten track and that's always welcome for the small attractions that deserve attention."

Tourism officials in the guide's direct targets were less sanguine. "The Lonely Planet people are on another planet," said Kevin Boorman, marketing manager of Hastings, which the authors dubbed "depressing". "We're really bohemian and they're really out of date - we've blitzed the seafront and there's a great air of vitality.

"The weekend after this one we have a huge festival, with morris dancers coming from all over the country. The Evening Standard even ran an article calling Hastings the hippest place on the south coast."

But the publishers of the guidebook are unrepentant and insist it will actually boost British tourism. "It's not a great time for the tourist industry," admitted a spokeswoman, Jennifer Cox. "But this book is extremely positive about the majority of places. We rave about Fishguard."

The book makes numerous unusual recommendations, enthusing about Skegness in Lincolnshire, suggesting that people would be "hard-pressed not to have a good time in Manchester", and describing Leeds as "one of the most inviting of Britain's big cities". "It's an extremely upbeat guide - especially about the Midlands - and it looks at what a problem we have with all the tourists going to the same places," Ms Cox said.

"We tried to think about where people really should be going. If you're going somewhere you don't want the only thing you see to be the backs of hundreds of other tourists in orange cagoules, all walking the same routes."

She added: "What's putting tourists off are the images of cattle burning on pyres. Independent tourists are the key to getting us out of this hole ... We need guidebooks that make Britain sound like it's lively and fun and happening and not just somewhere you'd see on a biscuit tin...

"The kind of things we say are the kind of things anyone who lives here knows about. We're not creating the problems - we're saying they exist and it would be foolish to ignore them."

The best of British...

Dundee "The dour, desolate Dundee of legend is fading. The city [has] cultural vigour and ambition ... But its real asset is its people - among the friendliest, most welcoming and most entertaining people you'll meet"

Fishguard "Ferry ports tend to be ugly, depressing places, but Fishguard stands out as an exception to the rule. It's on a beautiful bay [and the coastline] is far less touristy than the southern part of Pembrokeshire"

Sheffield "A city working hard to reinvent itself. Galleries and parks are being spiffed up in the centre and attractions pegged to the industrial past are well worth a visit ... England's fourth largest city is a lively place with an exuberant student population"

Leicester "[It] has suffered the triple disasters of wartime damage, uninspired post-war development and catastrophic industrial decline, but it has reacted to it better than most, reinventing itself as an environmentally progressive, ethnic entrept of a city that could teach other, bigger cities a thing or two about multiculturalism"

...and the worst

Around Glasgow "Glasgow is surrounded by a grim hinterland of post-industrial communities ... [with] endless suburbs of grey council-house architecture. It's here, possibly, that the area's gritty, black humour is engendered"

Dover "The foreshore is basically an enormous, complicated and unattractive vehicle ramp for the ferries. The town itself, under siege from heavy traffic, has no charm. The feeling that everyone is en route to somewhere much more interesting - as quickly as possible - doesn't help"

Cornwall "Land's End has been reduced to a commercially minded tourist trap, and inland much of the peninsula has been devastated by generations of tin and china-clay mining"

Hotels "Many ... are just fine, although stay in enough old British hotels and you'll soon realise that the TV series Fawlty Towers [starring John Cleese] was really a documentary"