40 businesses from Mid Devon's food, entertainment and hospitality sector attended the first leisure and tourism event to celebrate the launch of the new Visit Mid Devon website.

The event was held on Wednesday, 26 February 2020 at Petroc College, Tiverton and hosted jointly by the Visit Mid Devon team; a partnership, between the Council and the Tourist Information Service (run by Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life). 

Attendees were treated to a presentation by Kate Doodson from Cosmic. Better known as ‘Cosmic Kate’, she highlighted the importance of creating inspirational and successful content for digital platforms, to not only showcase the excellent food, entertainment and hospitality services offered within the district, but also to generate engagement and get people talking about Mid Devon.

Kate concluded her presentation with strategic and networking advice to instil a sense of community amongst the guests and encouraging them to take on the role of 'ambassadors for Mid Devon'.

During the event, the Visit Mid Devon team showcased the recently launched Visit Mid Devon website (see Exciting News for Mid Devon Leisure and Tourism).

The Visit Mid Devon website provides the first central reference point for everything Mid Devon has to offer, in terms of places to visit, eat and undertake leisure activities. It also allows visitors to create their own itinerary to plan their outing.

As part of the event, the attendees were invited to collaborate with the Visit Mid Devon team to make use of the advertising opportunities available through this exciting new resource.

A networking session followed the presentation focussing on coordinating Mid Devon’s tourism offer, with the aim of extending the holiday season in our region.

Carrie Thomas (Visitor Information Officer at Tiverton Tourist Information Service) said:

“We hope by having a clean and clear website it will really showcase the area and the wonderful experiences you can have here. This includes walking and cycling activities, food tourism, events and our central location from Devon’s tourism hotspots with the wealth of natural landscape. Why wouldn’t people want to come here? And now they can find all the information in one place!”

Feedback from businesses attending the event was very positive. Comments on Facebook include:

Valleyside Escapes in Bickleigh said:

“It was a great opportunity to connect with other Mid Devon businesses. Looking forward to seeing how the project evolves.”

Great Gutton Farm Holiday Cottages in Crediton said:

“Interesting and Informative evening. Great stuff and we look forward to making the most of all your hard work!”

Pound Farm Holidays in Butterleigh said:

“Thank you for a great evening. The new website looks great.”

Stoodleigh Court Coach House B&B said: 

“Great event to launch the #VisitMidDevon website!”

Tiverton Museum added on Twitter:

“Great launch of the visit mid we last night and really enjoyed meeting other local tourist business, great start to working together more!”

Tiverton Community Arts Theatre (TCAT) mentioned that:

“Tiverton Theatre website is our window to the world – and outside of our box office in The Busy Bee, is our key route to ticket purchases for our vibrant line-up of shows for 2020. The challenges of pleasing the ubiquitous google and other internet search engines isn’t an easy one to keep up to date with.

“But [during the event], help was on hand in the form of Lisa from Reach! A free digital health check put our minds to rest – our website and digital marketing got lots of big green ticks on a very comprehensive report, which was emailed to us after the event, along with some very helpful advice on how to keep a smile on those inescapable google servers”.

Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration, Cllr Graeme Barnell, echoed the opportunities the Visit Mid Devon partnership provides for the region:

“Mid Devon businesses are encouraged to engage with the website and help promote the area. An increase in footfall will support our town centres, tourism businesses and wider support services. Businesses need to become community champions and ambassadors for Mid Devon.

“Local residents are invited to share the website with friends and relatives and to keep an eye on the dedicated ‘What’s On’ section listing upcoming events. There’s also lots of useful local information for school holiday activities to keep the family entertained.”

Visit visitmiddevon.co.uk and help shout about Mid Devon!