Rail strikes are set to add to the woes of Kent's tourist attractions, following cross-Channel travel chaos last week which saw visitor numbers drop.

Earlier this week Deirdre Wells, chief executive officer for Visit Kent, called for government action to help ease delays at Dover and Folkestone and the resulting gridlock on Kent's roads.

Today Neil McCollum, head of historic properties in Kent for English Heritage, added his weight to those calls, but said the affect of upcoming train strikes was yet to be seen.

RMT union members will strike across the National Rail Network today, affecting all train operators across the country, while the ASLEF union strike is due to go ahead on Saturday July 30, again bringing services to a halt.

London Underground workers are also staging a fresh strike in a long-running dispute over jobs and pensions.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will walk out on August 19.

Mr McCollum said he was hoping tourists could still get to attractions like Dover Castle, which had been particularly badly hit by recent traffic gridlock.

He said."I think the advice would be check the route before you leave.

"If you can't take the train, which you can't on Saturday because of the rail strike or the limited service, check your route before you leave.

"Use things like google maps, use our website, log into our social media - they'll have an update on any traffic problems. If there's any problems we'll highlight them and any opportunities where you can get round the jams.

"There's many ways into Dover, especially if you know the town well, so we can offer advice on how to get round any jams, but hopefully fingers-crossed we will have a jam-free weekend."

While he said Kent was an "amazing county", with "amazing days out" visitor numbers were about 50% down on what would be expected at this time of year, and he said tourism attractions had been hoping this summer would provide a chance to recover in the wake of the pandemic.

"It's hugely vital for us, we're a charity," he added.

"We run 400 sites across the country and we've had a difficult couple of years in terms of running on reduced visitor numbers and reduced income and so on, but we've done really well in terms of retaining all the staff.

"We didn't have to lay any staff off. We're still here, we're still open, so we saw this year as kind of the first bounce-back year.

"We knew it would be difficult because it's the first year after the pandemic and it will take a while for overseas visitors to come back in large numbers, although we are seeing them already, but this year was going to be our big bounce-back year."

And he said the problems caused by delays at Dover were particularly frustrating as they had been predicted in advance of Brexit.

He added: "We've engaged with local politicians and the government to say look, there's a problem here, we need to find a solution for it, and we're still looking for that solution because last weekend we had the same problem again.

"Potentially if we don't find a different way of doing things we could have the same problem again next year, and we don't want that.

"Myself and colleagues across tourism attractions in Kent are trying to actively lobby the government and engage with the relevant organisations to try and get something to change, and it needs to change - also for the people of Dover because it was a terrible weekend for them to endure stuck in their houses, especially in the town centre.

"I think the people of Dover deserve better than this."

Network Rail spokesman Paul Dent-Jones, apologised to passengers for problems created by the strikes and he hoped the dispute underpinning the strikes could be resolved.

"First off, let me just apologise to all our passengers," he said. "I'm really really sorry for the disruption you're going to experience this week, especially off the back of the heatwave. We're doing everything we can to keep some services running but obviously we've got people out on strike.

"We've trained an extra 250 people to step into those really critical roles so that we can keep some services running, but even with their support it's nowhere near the number of people we need to run a normal railway, so we've had to prioritise the lines where we can move the most passengers with the limited resources available."

He said the key message for passengers was to only travel if it's absolutely necessary, and to check travel information before any journey, but he admitted the situation was "a nightmare".

"Obviously we're urging the RMT to get back around the negotiating table because really it's up to us to fix," he added.

""We want to get a pay deal sorted - our people deserve a pay rise. There's so many different roles it would take me all day to list them, but these are critical front line people that run the railway on a daily basis.

"We want to give our people a pay rise, we recognise the cost of living is on the increase, everything costs more these days, and we want to give our people a pay rise because they deserve one."

And Mr Dent-Jones said Network Rail's recent offer of an 8% pay rise over two years, with other benefits and bonuses, was a fair offer, and that the RMT's response to announce more strike dates was disappointing.

He added: "Taxpayers have already shelled out around £600 per household just to keep the industry afloat while no one was travelling.

"Passengers already pay enough for their fares we think, and we don't believe they should pay any more so it's down to us to get back round the negotiating table, work out what things we need to change, and work out what outdated working practices we can get rid of so that we can make the efficiencies we need, which will enable us to not only run a safer and better railway but it will give us the money that we need to give our people a decent pay rise."