The Eden Project has joined a dozen major tourism businesses offering commemorative discounts to encourage Britons to holiday at home next year, ministers have announced.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to make 2012 the year of domestic tourism to exploit the “feel-good factor” surrounding the London Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Eden, at St Blazey in Mid-Cornwall, joins Bourne Leisure, which owns Butlins in Minehead, Somerset, in signing up to the new 20.12 per cent discount scheme.

England’s domestic tourism board is pressing hotels, attractions and transport companies to follow suit in slashing prices next year. The region is widely tipped to benefit from any increase in “staycations”. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly rely on tourism to underpin the economy more than any other part of the UK, while Devon is the tenth most dependent, Office for National Statistics figures showed last month.

Mr Hunt said: “The 2012 Games give us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase all that is great about Britain.

“The Olympic Torch will travel the length and breadth of the country, from Land’s End to Lerwick, visiting some of our most striking landmarks.

“We want to show all the wonderful things Britain has to offer to an international audience, but next year will be the perfect opportunity for more of us to holiday in the UK.”

The iconic Olympic flame will pass through 154 cities, towns and villages across the South West. The Olympic Torch Relay will begin at Land’s End in May, and torchbearers will carry the flame through locations including Newquay and Liskeard in Cornwall, Plymouth and Totnes in Devon and Minehead and Taunton in Somerset, among others. Mr Hunt also launched a new campaign, overseen by domestic tourism body VisitEngland, to encourage Britons to holiday at home. The push is backed by a television advert supported by £4 million from the Government’s Olympic budget.

The advert, which has been characterised as putting the “great” in Britain, will run for two months and showcase the countryside, technology and innovation, heritage and music. The campaign is expected to bring in £489 million in extra spending by tourists.