Hopes that foot-and-mouth may soon be beaten are of little comfort to many of the region's hard hit businesses.

Many rely on the countryside trade, and for Gary Weilson, of the High Force Hotel in Teesdale, County Durham, the outlook appears bleak.

The hotel, which attracts ramblers and tourists visiting the nearby High Force waterfall, saw bookings drop by 90 per cent in the early days of foot-and-mouth.

Restrictions on the use of footpaths and other land in the area have long since been lifted.

But Mr Wilson says the knock-on effect of foot-and-mouth remains and indeed trade is as bad as it was at the height of the crisis back in the spring.

The hotel has lost about £70,000 in income from the effect of tourists staying away and also been forced to lay off part-time staff.

Mr Wilson, who runs the High Force with Shauna Harrison, said they relied on local trade to shore up the business.

This too had dropped off with farmers and others working in the agricultural industry uncertain about the future and still in many cases unable to sell stock.

He said: "We lost the tourists, but the local trade kept us going particularly in the early days of foot-and-mouth.

"This has now disappeared as well so things are actually worse than they were at the peak and we just don't know what is going to happen.

"There was an upturn when the kids were off school for half-term week, but after that nothing."

The hotel has now turned to the Internet in a bid to win trade back over the winter months which historically is when the business is at its quietest. It has developed its own website containing information on Teesdale and tourist routes.

"We want people to come back to Teesdale, but there are no guarantees whatever we do," added Mr Wilson.

Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales said people affected by the foot-and-mouth crisis needed "all the moral support possible in the next few months".

He spoke about the disease while at the Dartmoor National Park Authority's headquarters in Bovey Tracey yesterday for its 50th anniversary celebrations. "Let us pray the worst is now over and we can get everybody back their their feet again," he said.

"The winter is one of the real crucial times and we have to keep a very careful eye on how that situation develops."