Mid Devon Attractions Association
To receive a presentation from the Mid Devon Attractions Association.
Minutes:
Mr Phil Brind from the Mid Devon Attractions Association attended the meeting to provide a presentation on the background to the organisation and its future aspirations.
The following was reported:
· He was the proprietor of one of the last horse drawn barges in the country and he was proud of it being a successful tourist attraction. However, he had felt deep frustration at Mid Devon not being marketed as a valuable tourist destination whilst other districts within Devon had strong brands.
· He had initially joined the Heart of Devon group but had felt that this was very Exeter centric. He was now Chairman of the Mid Devon Attractions Association (MDAA) which had a large membership of stake-holders including local attractions providers such as Knightshayes. The establishment of this group had been helped by funding from the TAP (Town and Parish) fund for which he was extremely grateful.
· A Visit Devon website was now up and running with links to a large number of tourist attractions within Mid Devon. This was still in the developmental stage and would be improved upon as time progressed.
· Social media and web content was very important and the MDAA were going to work hard to organise and promote themed events such as a possible Mid Devon raft race.
· Partnership working was of paramount importance especially with partners such as Petroc who had experience in trying to attract students and businesses to the locality.
· It was hoped that a branding for Mid Devon would form a large part of phase 2 since this was currently missing.
· The services of Amy Dugard, the Growth and Regeneration Officer, had been vital in getting the Association up and running. They were extremely grateful for her creative and strategic thinking. She had proved a crucial link.
· Support was still very much needed in terms of funding and partnership working across all the stakeholder groups to get the Mid Devon Brand up and running.
Discussion took place regarding:
· The Visit Devon website and having to click on the ‘Explore’ button rather than seeing something immediately pop up about Mid Devon on the front page. It was explained that these were skeleton pages at the moment displaying minimum information but with input from all the interested organisations this would be improved.
· Existing residents within Mid Devon also needed to appreciate the benefits of living in in such a beautiful locality with all that it had to offer, not just tourists visiting the area.
The Chairman thanked Mr Brind for his passionate and informative presentation which had provoked a lot of thought.