ADVERTISERS will have to pay more if they want to be part of a glossy Weymouth holiday guide, borough councillors have decided.

They ignored a call from hoteliers to increase advertising rates in line with inflation and settled for a five per cent rise.

The council's management committee, which had to decide on the level of increase at its meeting this week, heard that production costs for the guide had risen.

The current level of income from advertising is £130,000 while design, production and distribution costs are £170,000.

Council publicity officer Peter Gilmour said the guide was a major marketing tool for the resort and very popular but he stressed the advertising rate should be increased in 2003 to sustain the demand for copies.

Mr Gilmour said an extra £6,500 would be generated with a five per cent increase in advertising rates based on current figures.

Coun Kay Wilcox said: "I think the guide should pay for itself. We're going to have to take a bolder step and introduce a 7.5 per cent increase.

"We're going to have to bring those two figures closer together if we want to break even."

But Coun Brian Ellis said a 7.5 per cent increase was a hefty rise and unfair on small businesses.

Coun Les Ames questioned the need for a the guide when the council website was already popular.

Mr Gilmour said more than 140,000 copies of the guide were printed to satisfy demand and many visitors to the website also requested a copy.

At a heated debate last month hoteliers complained to council officers that the advertising discount in the guide they enjoyed had been taken away.

They said an increase in advertising rates should be in line with inflation, at about three per cent.

But Barbara Dubben who runs the Bay Lodge Hotel at Greenhill and advertises in the guide said after the meeting: "It's a shame the rates have gone up but it won't put me off advertising.

"The guide attracts about 60 per cent of my business."