According to TMG, the competition was the first time this technique had been used in this way by a national newspaper.

The scent, which is developed as a liquid and inserted into tiny capsules mixed into the ink, was applied only to the relevant page in a special eight-page travel supplement.

The scratch and sniff page was printed using ink from Sun Chemical in line with the rest of Saturday's paper at TMG's contract printer Newsprinters in Broxbourne, Liverpool and Scotland.

The competition was run to launch a campaign by the St Kitts Tourism Authority and British Airways in the supplement. Readers were invited to scratch an area of the page and guess the smell.

TMG also embraced QR code technology as part of the campaign, with a code that led to a dedicated St Kitts microsite when scanned with a mobile phone.

Chris Debbinney-Wright, responsible for creative solutions at Telegraph Travel, said: "The aromatic ink is yet another example of how we are continuously creating new and innovative campaigns, across all of TMG’s platforms, for our clients, in ways which will engage our readers."

Scratch and sniff also hit the headlines last week when PrintWeek reported the cover of the latest issue of Dennis Publishing's Bizarre magazine also used the technology.