The COOL Tourism Project saw £186,000 pumped in to developing and promoting rural tourism across the area by four Somerset and Exmoor based partners - Conservative-controlled West Somerset Council contributed £13,000 of cash to the project, which levered in an additional £34,000 of match funding from Europe for the district.
COOL involved West Somerset Council, Sedgemoor District Council, Somerset County Council, Exmoor National Park Authority, Norfolk, Kent and Essex County Councils, Visit Kent, and the regions of Pas de Calais and The Somme in Northern France.
The initiative helped the partners develop strong links – representatives from France attended the Exmoor Tourism summit in Minehead late last year – and that will endure into the future. At a local level West Somerset Council was able to achieve ambitions for marketing and development of rural tourism in partnership with Somerset and Exmoor partners.
As a result of the COOL project a new Visit Exmoor website has been developed; the Somerset and Exmoor Great Escapes campaign was launched with 100,000 leaflets and an insert in the popular BBC Countryfile magazine; and a new Visit Exmoor Flickr account established with 700 images for use by businesses and media.
A dozen short films were made to promote great local experiences to visitors, for example rock pooling on the coast and, inland, spotting Exmoor ponies while four photo shoots were arranged featuring people enjoying some of the great experiences available.
Some 200 business delegates attended workshops and seminars focused on improving skills in digital and social media, marketing and business resilience.
Partners worked with local business networks, including helping to support the newly formed Dunster Tourism Forum, which has gone on to develop their own branding toolkit.
At a wider level all partners in the project worked together to develop a new Tourism Business Toolkit, which provides tips and advice on business planning, marketing and using local distinctiveness.
Cllr Karen Mills, who holds West Somerset Council’s economic regeneration and tourism portfolio, said: “COOL had proved its worth many times over.
“The opportunity to become a partner within this European Inter regional programme came at just the right time for us, as we were able to use a small amount of budget we had available for tourism to almost triple it giving us the chance to undertake some ambitious projects.
“This programme has now come to an end, but its legacy will pave the way for us to expand upon and roll out further activity using the existing networks and developing new ones utilising the Hinkley Point tourism mitigation funds. Many of Cool’s projects were unveiled at the Minehead hosted Tourism Conference, and were greeted enthusiastically by the industry.”