Tavistock Town Council has welcomed plans to create a coordinated approach to marketing and promoting the town in a bid to boost its number of tourists.

Exciting proposals are afoot the create a marketing partnership between the town council, Tavistock Heritage Trust and the town’s BID.

At present, town promotion takes place through a range of bodies, all of which have limited budgets for marketing activities.

Any funding they possess is used by these individual bodies or groups based on their specific needs.

Tavistock BID focus on business promotion and driving more trade into the town, supporting big event-based activity like Dickensian Evening and the annual Goose Fair,

Tavistock Heritage Trust promote the new Guildhall Gateway Centre and the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site and Tavistock Town Council promote the town and utilise their property portfolio.

Other agencies such as West Devon Borough Council, Visit Dartmoor and Visit Tamar Valley promote the town in the wider area.

The move is being spearheaded by Tavistock Heritage Trust who said in a report to the town council that Tavistock currently had no destination marketing plan to improve footfall numbers and was lacking a multi-agency agreement on a set of objectives and the central control of a marketing budget to deliver joint objectives, which this new proposal seeks to rectify.

Individually, the three bodies did not have the staffing power, nor resources to fund and run a marketing campaign.

Creation of town marketing fund would see contributions from these organisations of £5,000 each from BID and the Town Council and £3,000 from the Heritage Trust. A freelance social media assistant would develop a consistent online presence for the town.

Geri Parlby, Chair of the Tavistock Heritage Trust: ‘We’re delighted that this proposal has been welcomed. Nothing has yet formally been agreed and we’re still in the early stages but we’re really looking forward to discussing and developing a marketing plan in the coming weeks.’

It is the Heritage Trust’s belief that Tavistock requires this overall destination marketing plan which integrates the messages of these different bodies.

With a combined marketing strategy and budget, a new, powerful and focused vision can then promote the town, they said, plus significantly increase footfall, help local businesses and increase revenue of council owned properties, thus boosting the local economy.

Now this proposal has been welcomed, it is to be finalised and confirmed at a meeting in a few weeks time.

Andy Hutton, Mayor of Tavistock, said: ‘We want to make Tavistock an even greater town for locals and visitors. When jointly managed and coordinated, we can advertise and organise events together for the benefit of everyone. As an information hub, the Guildhall can direct people to local shops, cafes and resturants too - ensuring everyone enjoys themselves to the full.’

BID manager Janna Sanders reiterated that it was early days and all individuals within the organisations had to agree to a collaborative plan which met all their needs but she said Tavistock had the potential to draw in visitors from the home counties and further afield because it had something for everyone.