Tourists are being asked to rebook their journeys as bosses brace for a repeat of "horrible" scenes at the Port of Dover on the Easter weekend.

Port officials and ferry firms are taking action to try and alleviate congestion to prevent severe queues backing up on the roads.

The Port of Dover was forced to declare a critical incident over the weekend as queues of more than 14 hours backed up in the town.

Among those stranded during the chaos were schoolchildren who were reportedly left without food for more than five hours.

It came amid an increased volume of coaches making the crossing amid the Easter holiday rush, with some 400 extra coaches arriving on Saturday.

The weekend is expected to once again see high levels of traffic into the port, forcing bosses to hold an urgent review with ferry operators and French border control.

A spokesperson for the port authority said that operators including DFDS, Irish Ferries and P&O are contacting coach customers to encourage them to rebook.

This will be as part of an attempt to spread the travel across a three-day period, from tomorrow (April 6) to Saturday (April 8).

Additionally, increased border control infrastructure is being brought in to allow additional capacity for coach processing, while French border control is increasing the number of officials to process outbound travellers.

Coach and car drivers will be asked not to arrive early for sailings to prevent bottlenecks in the port and the wider Dover area.

A spokesperson said: "All Port of Dover stakeholders are acutely aware that last weekend was a horrible situation for many travellers, including the elderly and schoolchildren.

"It is the top priority of all parties to ensure a better experience for travellers this weekend.

"These additional measures are intended to significantly improve traffic throughput and give travellers a better start to their holidays."

A DFDS spokeswoman said: "“DFDS is working with the Port of Dover and border authorities to prepare for the Easter weekend. We can assure passengers and coach operators that we are doing everything we can to be ready for the expected volumes of traffic, which we have shared in advance with the authorities.

"While traffic was flowing smoothly once it reached DFDS’ check-in booths last weekend, we are putting extra contingency measures in place this weekend to support our passengers. These include contacting coach and group operators to amend bookings where possible and offering extra flexibility to spread traffic across the weekend and on both of our two routes to France.

"We will have additional staff available to assist passengers at the ports and we will have food and water for passengers on standby in case it is needed.

"We hope that shorter processing times for coach passengers can be achieved this weekend and we are doing all we can in collaboration with the port to reduce the pressure and bottlenecks at passport control. We expect a busy weekend, although coach volumes are lower than we saw last week, and we will continue to provide regular updates to our passengers on Twitter @DFDSUKUpdates and via our website www.dfds.com.”