The Exmoor Tourism Conference being held in Minehead next week is set to be the best yet with a packed programme covering a wide range of topics, relating to rural tourism a key part of the West Somerset economy. The conference at the newly refurbished Beach Hotel on November 6 is aimed at tourism providers and related businesses and will include inspirational presentations from keynote speakers as well as practical, hands-on workshops.
There will be a chance to get a preview of the new Visit Exmoor website plus the launch of a new business tourism toolkit developed by local authorities and Hidden Britain as part of the COOL tourism project. The toolkit is designed to inform and inspire businesses in developing and marketing their business and products and offers to visitors
Conservative-controlled West Somerset Council has worked with partners including Exmoor National Park, to organise the conference and Lead Member for Economic Growth, Cllr Karen Mills, said: “This is a fantastic chance for our businesses to get involved, to learn more about what’s happening in our most important local industry and to network.
“This is the opportunity to meet up with like-minded people and to see how they can fit into the bigger picture of tourism. Every business and provider has a part to play and we want to make sure they know this is happening and that they are more than welcome to come along and get involved.”
The four workshops are:
• Hinkley Action Tourism Partnership workshop – Corinne Matthews, West Somerset Council
• Using the COOL rural tourism toolkit – James Turner, Hidden Britain
• Marketing Exmoor Experiences – Tim Wilkinson, Exeter University & Jim Hardcastle, Viper Marketing
• Customer Service workshop – Anne Price, Broadleaf Training
Attendance at the conference, which runs from 9.45am-4.15pm, is just £15 per person to include lunch and refreshments with support from the EU Interreg Channel IVA funded COOL tourism project. The booking form can be downloaded as a word document here: http://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/communities/tourism-trade/Events-and-training