LETA Agenda | December 2018 – Supplemental

27 December 201827 February 2020 John Patrinos

Meeting notes from Nick White, North Devon Marketing Bureau

North Devon Marketing Bureau – this was set up by a few businesses 5 years ago following the councils design to remove all funding for the regions marketing.

It has 200 members (mainly small businesses) represent 463 businesses

These members pay money into a central war chest to market the destination as one.

The amount in the war chest is £89,000 per annum (11 members donate 48% of this amount)

£45,000 goes on social media and web development, the remainder is spent on membership of Visit Devon and partnering them in 10 UK exhibitions 2 North American, I Dutch, 1 German and 1 China

We have also created regional videos that are used on our social media, website and all exhibitions, these are being added to all the time. They ran this year on the Visit Britain main stand at World Travel Market and ITB in Germany

We have launched a food trail in march this year to help promote the food industry to the local and visitor markets. This is a web driven app www.northdevonfoodtrail.co.uk
We have a new website this year www.northdevon.com that is linked directly to the Visit Devon Website and we have over 1.3Million visitors to this site.

Our social media prior to the facebook changes was reaching 13 million and whilst this has reduced to just under 4 million now is growing again. Our social media is linked to Visit Devon and Visit Britain’s

We have been working with both ND council and Torridge Council to create a tourism strategy for the region. (attached)

We have been working with them on the round Britain cycle race, The new water-sports centre in Ilfracombe

We also have been helping submit the region as a “world surf reserve” if we get this we will be the first region in the world (2020)

We are working with the Biosphere and Area of outstanding natural beauty, South west coastal path and Marine heritage to joint market these projects nationally and Internationally

We have created Itineraries for Visit Britain to market the region overseas to agents.

We are continually doing fam trips for agents and have so far this year had booked 1/2 million pound worth of new business for the WW2 training camps booked.

We are working on a new Golf product for the region that is also incorporating Cornwall and Somerset

we are developing a landing page on our site for Dark sky’s

We have developed a page for ancestral tourism

We will have 6 articulated lorries covering the south of the UK marketing North Devon on 3 sides.

We have linked with Plymouth to market North Devon as part of the Mayflower 400 celebrations across the East Cost of North America

We are in contact with the Exmoor food festivals to help them use us to promote their festivals

On the subject of Brand we have been working on Brands for the last 18 months with Visit Devon. The South Coast of Devon has been branded “Englands Seafood Coast” The North is in the process of being branded “Englands Adventure Coast” We are just trade marking this as we speak and it will be rolled out in 2019. These brands will be sub brands under the Visit Devon Brand and will be used in all marketing to level the playing field between the North and South and will help create a stand brand identity for Devon. Visit Devon have a Brand team working on this lead by a lady who was Brand director for Coca cola before moving here two years ago

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