Bridport and District Tourism Association Meeting

Last night I gave a presentation to a very well attended meeting of the Bridport and District Tourism Association about how I see the changes in Tourism Support from April 2011. As a non-executive Director of South West Tourism I gave an outline of the impact of the closure of SWT on 31 March and all the services that will be missed by the tourism sector – including data research, marketing, training and business support and, of course, the voice of tourism. We discussed the various options from 1 April and how the private sector will have to be willing to work together if some services are to continue

We also discussed my role in Destination Dorset and the progress made over the last five years by the the 6 district councils in Dorset trying to work together. Witht the exception of an additional very good website – www.visit-dorset.co.uk – there was still a lot of work to do to publish one guide for Dorset instead of hte current five guides and the merger of the websites into visit-dorset to further develop the ‘Dorset’ brand. With public sector cuts and the wish to work together it was hoped that more progress will be made in the future.