The last three publicly-funded Tourist Information Centres (TICs) in Cornwall are set to close next year after the annual budget was slashed by more than 50 per cent.

Council chiefs hope that alternative business models can be found, but will pull the plug on funding for St Ives, Penzance and Falmouth from March next year.

The three offices, which all attract about 100,000 annual visitors, account for 70 per cent of Cornwall Council's £450,000 budget and employ around 14 advice workers.

But with a looming £250,000 cut to the tourism budget next year, plans to create a more "level playing field" across the county have been fast-tracked.

Malcolm Bell, chief exectutive of the council-owned VisitCornwall, admitted that the cuts were "savage".

He said he would have preferred to implement the changes over three to four years.

"We are not trying to shut them but find different models of operation – we are heavily supporting three but not supporting the others," he said.

"We have got to make a more level playing field and develop a more effective service – I cannot rule out them closing but we will have failed if we get to that point."

The organisation of TICs in Devon and Cornwall is a patchwork with of privately-run and council-owned centres.

When Cornwall Council superceded the district and borough councils last April, it took over responsibility for the county's 21 TIC's, which employ around 100 staff.

Of these 17 were already privately run and the Newquay centre has since been taken over by the town council with funding from VisitCornwall.

Mr Bell says the county-wide tourist brochure is to be replaced from 2012 with thematic visitor guides, opening up "new streams of income" to any prospective ventures.

He believes the iconic blue i-sign has "real commercial value" and could prove attractive to existing businesses. The system he favours will see the remaining budget divided among all TICs, and spent on training, computer support and staff development.

An emergency meeting of business leaders and tourism experts has been called in St Ives to see whether there is any appetite among local people to create a new model to replace the service.

Marco Amura, co-owner of the town's Queen's Head, produced an alternative visitor guide last year and described the news as a "double-edged sword".

Mr Amura believes the TIC is a "valuable asset" to the town and thinks it will be a "battle" to find anyone prepared to take on the job.

"Everyone promotes their own business for their own gain and it will be hard to pull the town together," he said.

"The TIC helps a lot of small businesses, sometimes without them knowing – you cannot substitute the human touch."

The meeting in St Ives is set for Wednesday, September 15 at 5.30pm in The Guildhall.