Two resorts are laying claim to Lewis Carroll, reportsStephen McClarence At the St Tudno in Llandudno, Janette Bland, MBE, isbracing herself for Wonderland Wars. Brimming with ebullience ("Followme to our award-winning loos!"), she runs the St Tudno Hotel in the NorthWales resort that, until now, has cornered the market in Lewis Carrolltourism.

Thanks to the survival of two of the holiday homes ofAlice Liddell, the child who inspired the Alice books, Llandudno has longbeen the world centre of Mad Hatters, March Hares and Mock Turtles.

But tourism, down its own rabbit hole of make-believe,is a competitive game. Destinations need pegs, authors are good ones, andno link is too tenuous. Sadly, with only so many well-known authors togo round, rivalries have sprung up in the looking-glass world of literarytourism.

Somerset is challenging the Lake District's exclusiveclaim to Wordsworth and Coleridge. Coventry and Hull are fighting it outover Phillip Larkin. The Brontes have prompted a friendly skirmish betweennorthern villages. And now Whitby, on the North Yorkshire coast, is tryingto muscle in on Lewis Carroll with its own White Rabbit Trail.

Llandudno - an elegant Victorian resort with a surprisingnumber of palm trees - can take it. Ask Janette Bland ("the MBE is forservices to tourism"), a member of the Llandudno Alice Committee, whichco-ordinates Wonderlandish events and stages an annual Miss Alice competitionfor local girls. For 28 years, the exuberant Mrs Bland and her husbandMartin have run the smart, upmarket St Tudno Hotel, where the Liddell familyspent their 1861 Easter holiday. How does she feel about Whitby's pre-emptivestrike in Wonderland Wars? "I'm very laid back about it," she says, withdetermination. "I'm not jealous. The more Alice is promoted, the better."Promotion is the key to all this. With the traditional British seasideholiday in decline, the tourist industry needs novelties - brands, themes,products, call them what you like - to woo back the millions who go abroad."When we came here, no-one was going to the Costas and people put up withwhat they were given," says Mrs Bland. "My brother-in-law was in the businessand he told us: 'You can give them concrete for breakfast and no one willcomplain'. Now people are more discriminating and you're looking for newmarkets. So the Alice connection is important to Llandudno. "We get a lotof Japanese and American members of the Lewis Carroll Society coming here.Some of them are quite obsessed by the Alice thing." Many head straightfor the Alice in Wonderland Centre at The Rabbit Hole, the knocked-togetherbasements of a pair of semis round the corner from the railway station.Set up in 1987, it pulls in 20,000 visitors a year to see its animatedtableaux of Sir John Tenniel's illustrations. There are photographs ofvisiting celebrities, notably Ken Dodd (looking remarkably like the MarchHare) and an enterprising range of Alice merchandise, from paperweightsto table mats.

"We've all languages here, you know," says owner MurielRatcliffe. "Alice in Wonderland in Esperanto, if you want it." She picksup her umbrella and leads the way round Llandudno's modest Alice heritagetrail. On the windy West Shore ("renowned for sunsets," says Mrs R), wesee the Gogarth Abbey Hotel, another of the Liddell family's holiday homes.Across the road is a marble White Rabbit memorial, unveiled by David LloydGeorge, no less, in 1933.

It is not wearing well. Vandals have knocked off the rabbit'sears and one of its legs. At one time (this is real Wonderland stuff) astonemason repaired it with marble from a slab discarded by a local fishmongerwho claimed to be "Purveyor of Fish to Her Majesty the Queen of Romania".

To deter further vandalism, the memorial has been enclosedin a globe-like metal cage and surrounded by an ugly moat. "It should bein a Victorian gazebo," muses Mrs Ratcliffe. Controversially, the inscriptionclaims that Lewis Carroll was inspired to write the Alice books here inLlandudno. But there is no firm evidence that Carroll ever visited theresort. He preferred Eastbourne - and, as a young man, Whitby.

Over 150 miles north-east of Llandudno, Whitby is makingthe most of its Carroll connection. Under his real name, Charles LutwidgeDodgson, the author visited the town half a dozen times between 1854 and1871. His first published work, a poem unpromisingly called The Lady ofthe Ladle, was set in Whitby and appeared in the Whitby Gazette.

With those minimal facts, The White Rabbit Trail weavesits fanciful way round winding back streets and steep cobbled alleys. "We'renot claiming a lot by Carroll," says co-author Anne Dennier from WhitbyCivic Society. "This is just a hook for people to look at Whitby as itwas in the 19th century." The only surviving building with a Lewis Carrolllink - apart from the Walrus and Carpenter cafe (disappointingly, no mockturtle soup) - is the house in East Terrace where he stayed. Blue-plaqued,solidly 1840s and with grand views over the harbour, it is now BarnardsHotel. Its owner, Donald Pearson, says he has regular inquiries from Carrollenthusiasts, "but I dare say half the people who come to Whitby don't knowabout Lewis Carroll."

He has a point. Captain Cook (born nearby) and Dracula(the novel opens with a Whitby shipwreck) are much bigger business in Whitby.And a glance round the Tourist Information Centre shows the populist preoccupationsof money-spinning tourism. A video of James Herriot's Yorkshire is on showalongside books called Classic Heartbeat Country, Inside Emmerdale andThe Yorkshire Teapot Trail. Though, to be fair, St Hilda and Her Times,a less glossy publication, is also available.

Back in Llandudno, at the Alice in Wonderland Centre,Muriel Ratcliffe has just opened a parcel from Japan. "Look at this," shesays. "A Japanese lady who came here last year has written a book aboutchildren's literature." She hands it over. It is called England, The FantasyLand. With no trace of irony.

A TOWN FOR ALICE

Alice in Wonderland Centre (01492 860082),
Trinity Square, Llandudno, is open Monday to Saturday,10am-5pm (plus Sunday, 10am-4pm, from Easter to end of October).
Admission: Pounds 2.95, with concessions.
Bed and breakfast at the St Tudno Hotel, Llandudno (874411)is from Pounds 47.50 per person per night.

 From Pounds 40 at Gogarth Abbey Hotel (876211).

From Pounds 15 at Barnard's Hotel, Whitby (01947 606167).

The White Rabbit Trail costs Pounds 1.50 from Whitby TouristInformation Centre (01947 602674).