Tourism businesses invited to Plymouth free storm recovery conference

Tourism businesses across Devon are being offered expert advice and support in a series of ‘Open for Business’ conferences and advice sessions organised by Visit Devon as part of the Government backed extreme weather recovery programme.

The Plymouth conference takes place on Wednesday (26 March) at the Holiday Inn.

Supported by Visit England the conferences have been devised to help businesses that have been directly affected as a result of storm and flood damage, as well as those that have concerns about bookings for Easter and the summer. The events are open for 150/200 delegates.

The conferences will provide professional advice on a range of topics including Social Media and Digital Marketing, Business Planning & Business Continuity, Marketing & Your Marketing Messages, Customer Care & Customer Service, and How to Turn Crisis into a PR opportunity.

Each event will include an update from Visit Devon, presentations on the above topics and lunch, followed by one-to-one advice sessions. Advisors are also available for visits to your business.

"The conferences, paid for by the Government, offer a golden opportunity for tourism businesses to get top class FREE advice and support from a range of carefully selected experts." said Carolyn Custerson, Chair of Visit Devon.

"The conference programme has been designed to help ensure that Devon tourism businesses are well briefed to deal with any current or future challenges presented recently by the extreme weather.

In addition the conferences will give businesses the opportunity to learn more about crisis PR and how to improve their PR and Social Media skills in addition to providing advice about future Business and Financial Planning and advising them on how to trade both legally and profitably." The full programme can be seen here.

Visit England has also just published a practical online free toolkit that covers everything from assessing the situation, communicating with customers, reviewing marketing activity, government support and legal considerations. 

James Berresford, Chief Executive, VisitEngland said: “We welcome this additional funding from the Government to support the tourism industry. It has enabled us to act fast, and together with our destination partners we are providing vital on the ground support to help businesses become more resilient against severe weather conditions in the future. A price-led advertising campaign in March will support our efforts to reassure visitors that England remains a beautiful and exciting destination to visit this Spring and Summer.”

Anybody wishing to support the conferences on social media is encouraged to use the hashtag #WatertightBiz and include @visitdevon and @VisitEnglandBiz where possible.

Click here for further information.