Who will win the Oscars? Avatar, a 3D, science fiction extravaganza that merges real-life actors and animated characters is breaking records at the box office and seems to be the hot favourite.

I'm no film critic, but it got me thinking about how much things have changed over the last century. Would a new black and white film, with no sound, and accompanied by a pianist, break box office records today as it would have in the 1920s? It might have some sentimental value but you would be mad if you expected it to compete successfully against Avatar or the next example of technological wizardry that will hit our cinema screens.

But what has this got to do with Thanet? Once Thanet was entirely reliant on its holiday industry. Today it is still an important part of the local economy, but it is far less significant. Some local people, however, constantly refer back to the heydays of Thanet tourism and demand that somehow we can return to that era.

Whenever expansion of the airport or the building of factories is proposed, these people argue that we need not support such ideas. In their view, such developments should be resisted, despite our current levels of unemployment, because they would impact negatively on our tourist industry, on which they believe we can rely in the future.

To suggest Thanet can rely on tourism to solve our employment problems and rebuild our local economy strikes me as nonsense. To suggest that the people of Britain, or the wider world, could be encouraged to flock to our local towns for their holidays in the way they did in the first half of the 20th century is simply preposterous.

Thanet tourism is an important local industry. It needs the support of our local council, which is sadly lacking at present. It can remain an important source of local employment, but it cannot any longer solve our problems on its own. Despite the Turner Centre, the redevelopment of Dreamland, or any of the other potential developments in the pipe-line, we can never hope to compete for a lion's share of the holiday trade against the attractions of sunnier climates or even with nearby cities like Canterbury and London.

Yes, we need a vibrant tourist industry, probably one based on short breaks and which exploits our beautiful scenery and beaches, good restaurants and our heritage architecture. But we also need a much broader economy. We need new factories and business parks; we need the airport to grow its passenger business; and we need to build on the new high speed train service both to help us attract investors, and to provide commuting opportunities. And anyone that wants to resist such things is being as foolish as someone trying to sell silent movies in a world of Avatar.