It was wonderful to see so many English Riviera Tourism and Hospitality businesses coming together for ERBID's Destination Marketing Update 2024.  The event on 15th May was kindly hosted by The Redcliffe Hotel in Paignton. 

ERBID Chair Chris Hart introduced the meeting by addressing the challenging trading environment for our businesses since Covid, with businesses needing to continually review their own operations and be 'light on their feet'.  He spoke of the challenges of increasing costs (utility bills in particular) and the impact of the cost of living on visitor spend and booking trends.  

The presentation by the ERBID team then went on to look at all the destination marketing activities taking place and planned for 2024.  CEO Carolyn Custerson presented the 2024 marketing themes, which aim to extend the season by targeting key growth markets such as Young Actives and Cultural Explorers. The traditional family summer market is of course supported, with some campaigns pushing out later to capture the trend for last-minute booking.

Digital Marketing Specialist Gina Franchi presented a suite of paid digital campaigns and social media activity taking place this year.  She gave insights about the official English Riviera website englishriviera.co.uk, which has around a million users each year and contains 2,500 pages of content!  She explained how businesses can maximise their own marketing by creating quality content around popular topics such as Things to Do and What's On.

Another key topic was ERBID's event support, with £100k ringfenced every year to invest in events.  Two new initiatives for ERBID2 included the English Riviera Walking Festival and the Bay of Lights, specifically introduced to lengthen the season.

Other topics covered included the Visitor Information Centre, the English Riviera Image Library and printed materials.

After a Q and A session, the event was brought to a close with an inspiring speech by Rob Cox, CEO of the Tudor Hotels Collection.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to join us on the day and we hope you found it valuable.

The Destination Marketing 2024 presentation slides can be viewed here.   Or download the full presentation including notes by clicking here.