Here's an idea....

Several factors are starting to come together for Llandudno, at the moment. The state of the economy, which has seen bookings rise significantly in the resort's hotels, the need for employment, which means people with a good idea stand to make money, the lack of parking space in the main town and the desire of visitors to browse shops.

Now, what deters folk from buying lots of stuff when they can't park near the shops? It doesn't take an Einstein to realise that the magical appeal of lugging bags full of goodies around can lose its lustre pretty quickly. M & S realised this some years ago and introduced their now famous 'collect by car' service. But what if that idea could be developed and taken to the next logical stage?

The world's biggest holiday destinations discovered the idea years ago, and it's become a massive success story, boosting revenue in both hotels and shops. So what is it?

If you visit Universal Studios or Disneyworld in Florida, they go one step further. After purchase, they deliver your goods to your hotel free of charge. Now, for this to work, the hotels have to sign up to the idea as do the shops, and there would be a fair amount of logistics to cope with. However, could it be done?

A family of Visitors staying, at say - the George, browse Mostyn St on Monday looking for goodies. They buy a couple of books from WH Smith, Mrs Visitor then sees something nice in Clare's, they all pop into Boots to buy factor 1 sun cream and other bits and pieces before picking up some fascinating stuff from the Gift store. Instead of carrying these around with them, however, each shop bags the goods, then affixes one half of a receipt label to the bag. This label shows the hotel the Visitors are staying in, the room number, and - importantly - the leaving date. The shop then stows the bags somewhere for later collection.

Between 1600 - 1800, a van collects from all those shops signed up to the scheme. It stows the goods and, while driving from point to point, the bags are sorted according to the hotels that have signed up to the scheme. When the collection is complete, the van then repeats the process, but this time delivers to each of the subscribed hotels, who store the sealed bags in their reception areas. Some time later, the Visitors return from their stroll along the prom to find all their goodies awaiting them, in sealed bags, at the hotel. They're refreshed (because they haven't been lugging bags), happy (well, they're on holiday:-) and, best of all, they leave Llandudno with a very positive image.

The two questions, of course are simple: who will start this and who will pay for it? At the outset, this would have to be funded by the shops, since they're the ones that would be getting the most out of the idea. But once visitors realised that by staying at a hotel that sported the 'Hotel delivery' logo, those hotels might start attracting more custom and then could reasonably be expected to contribute. As to who starts the idea...well, this could be the next big thing if there are still any entrepreneurs out there.