OUR VISION
The tourism economy in North Devon and Torridge is thriving – it attracts 4.5m visitors from the UK and beyond every year, generating over £350m for the local economy. Our beautiful natural environment is one of our most valuable assets, alongside our vibrant contemporary arts and event scenes, and food, drink and year-round facilities. But the sector faces seasonal limitations, and threats of domestic tourism slowing.
Our vision is to create a thriving, year-round visitor economy that doesn’t just rely on domestic tourism. To do this, we must increase the business-tourism share – boosting other key sectors in the process. This is how we’re making it happen.
OUR AIMS
THRIVING TOWN CENTRES
Drawing visitors into our town centres is a key driver for creating year-round tourism and protecting our town centres from further decline – creating fantastic places to live and work as well as visit.
BUSINESS TOURISM
We’re supporting our delivery partners in promoting business tourism for companies looking to hold conferences, expos and trade fairs in the region – reducing our reliance on seasonal visits and declining domestic tourism.
IMPROVING INFRASTRUCTURE
We’re advocating for the improvement of transport and digital connectivity, removing constraints to visitor economy businesses. This won’t just benefit domestic and business tourism, but ordinary local people.
NATURE FOCUS
We’re prioritising one of our most valuable assets – nature – by enhancing the hard work of the Nature Tourism Officer, and supporting EV charging infrastructure to appeal to sustainable tourists.
HOW WE'RE DOING IT
BUSINESS GROWTH SUPPORT
We help tourism, hospitality and other visitor economy business owners directly, through workshops, mentorship and applying for funding and grants for innovation.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT & DELIVERY
We offer project management and grant management for larger projects, from the first stages of planning to final delivery, ensuring compliance, confidence, and efficiency.
PARTNERSHIP
FACILITATION
We encourage growth through knowledge sharing, collaboration, networking opportunities - this is crucial for a sector as multifaceted and diverse as the visitor economy.
SKILLS & TALENT
Boosting our tourism sector, and creating a year-round visitor economy, starts with skills and talent. We’re working with schools, skill partners and other educational centres to both upskill and attract new talent to the sector. We’re also focused on supporting existing businesses, making obtaining digital skills and creating compelling marketing simpler. By boosting these industries, improving infrastructure and creating more demand and jobs in the process, we also improve place appeal and draw in talent from elsewhere.
HOW WE’RE SUPPORTING THE LOCAL SKILLS AGENDA
CAREER PATHWAYS
We're supporting the creation of new training pathways that cater for new entrants to help to upskill the existing workforce - including leadership and customer service to ensure a great experience for all visitors.
TECH & INNOVATION
We'll help set up regular events for the visitor economy to upskill in emerging fields such as AI, trial new technologies to modernise and digitise, and ensuring digital skills are embedded within the centre.
INDUSTRY NETWORKS
We're always working to strengthen industry networks to improve coordination, enable a unified tourism voice for the region, create a shared 'story' to use in marketing, and build intelligence in the sector.
NORTHERN DEVON MAKES
We support Northern Devon Makes - a centralised hub to easily find relevant businesses in the area to work for and collaborate with, and attract new talent. Check out the Makers Map!
OUR DELIVERY PARTNERS
As well as the below, our delivery partners for this cluster include existing visitor economy businesses, regional schools, town centres, parish councils and tourist business groups.
