Kent has welcomed record rates of tourists, with more than 60 million visiting in 2015 alone.

The Garden of England saw a staggering 60.6 million visitors last year, according to figures from Visit Kent.

This has meant that the visitor economy has topped £3.6 billion for the first time ever.

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This has also been good news for job seekers, as the number of jobs in tourism has risen 5.9% to 71,920.

Nationally, Kent compares well, remaining the third most visited most visited destination - outside of London that is.

But what makes Kent so great?

We took to TripAdvisor to find the best rated restaurants and attractions, and some of the results are not what you'd expect.

On the food front, surprisingly a seaside fish bar has hit the high at the top of the list.

Coming in first out of 3,485 restaurants in Kent, Shakey Shakey Fish Bar in Ramsgate has received 132 'excellent' reviews.

Also in the top ten are Maharani Indian Restaurant, Sittingbourne, The Empire Room, Ramsgate and Saint Smokeys BBQ House, Canterbury.

For attractions, however, there is less of a shock as Dover Castle takes the first position out of 846 things to do, followed by The Hawking Centre and Canterbury Cathedral.

Towards the bottom are smaller attractions including The Gurkha Visitor Centre, Folkestone, Mecca Bingo, Sittingbourne, and Splashes Sports Centre, Gillingham.

Despite the ups and downs of Kent attractions and restaurants, since 2002 the value of tourism in Kent has risen by a massive 49%.

Chief executive of Visit Kent Sandra Matthews-Marsh MBE said: “Kent’s reputation as a great short break destination continues to grow, and we are proud to remain one of the UK’s most popular destinations.

“2015 was undoubtedly a challenging year for the industry, with poor weather and the impact of Operation Stack during the summer.

"But these new figures show a rise in visitor numbers, jobs, and in the value of our industry, indicating that a lot of hard work has paid off.

“We put this picture of consistent growth down to two things – billions of investment by the public and private sector in hotels, attractions, footpaths, ferries and more, to ensure that Kent’s visitor offer is world class.

“Secondly, an unceasing commitment of both the public and private sector to work together on a single vision and strategy for tourism, led by Visit Kent."

Thanet wound up top of the list for highest increases in visitor numbers and spend.

The district saw 16.8% more day trips to the area and £293 million was spent in the area as a result of tourism - an increase of 19.4% on 2013.

Canterbury had the highest number of trips in the county - 7.2million - and overseas trips shot up 6%.

Other district highlights included a 6% increase in attraction spend in Ashford, a rise in the overall value of tourism in Sevenoaks, while Tonbridge and Malling saw a large increase in the number of staying visitors.

For some areas, there has also been a step up in the number of overnight international visitors, including a 12% increase in Dover, while both Shepway and Tunbridge Wells saw a 7% increase.

Kent County Council Cabinet Member for Economic Development Mark Dance said: “I’m very happy to see that the visitor economy is flourishing in Kent and these figures show that our investment in supporting businesses across the sector over the last decade has worked.

“The partnerships across the visitor economy are going from strength to strength and Kent remains the third most popular destination in the UK outside of London.

“We certainly won’t be sitting on our laurels when it comes to increasing growth but we have a great deal to be proud of as a county.”