Website lures tourists to non-existent beach

LONDON: A Cornish joker has set up a website to lure tourists to a beach that doesn’t exist. A website for the fake Porthemmet beach boasts it as the best in the county and the only one in Britain “to allow topless sunbathing”.

It quotes Bill Oddie as supposedly saying: “Porthemmet and its surroundings are one of last remaining natural treasures of the British Isles.” But its name gives the game away to locals as ‘emmet’ is a derogatory word for tourist in Cornwall.

The hoax was created by Cambridge graduate Jonty Haywood, from Truro, Cornwall, who said: “Sending tourists to find an imaginary beach is funny. It’ll be funnier once lots of Cornish people know about it.”

Social networking site Facebook has 2,000 people signed up for a group about the beach.