Sponsors

Quality in Tourism

Quality in Tourism has been relaunched as an independent accreditation service, offering grading, mystery shopping and specialist tourism and hospitality expertise.

Our experienced team have worked in various tourism and hospitality roles, giving them a true empathy and understanding of the issues within the industry. From mystery customer visits and website reviews to RevPar and marketing analysis, we work with our members to offer practical help and assistance, with the aim of driving additional sales and increasing profit.

Our assessor team can star rate your property without the prescriptive standards of other schemes, recognising your quality and its appeal to customers, without insisting on outdated physical measures irrelevant to your customers. Our entry level scheme gives assurances to your customers, ir is appropriately named Safe Clean & Legal TM. We offer special accolades to help you promote your properties to customers looking for your particular offerings.

Our experience, expertise and insight into the industry allows us to respond to current trends and assist members to deliver what the customer actually wants.

South West Water Business

The South West has a proud record of being at the forefront of tourism’s need to have a positive impact on the beautiful environment we promote and enjoy. Part of the challenge in ensuring that our region stays special is to manage our precious resources sensitively and effectively.

South West Water Business is dedicated to business customers in the South West Water region. We pride ourselves on exemplary customer services – 97% of our customers are happy with their interaction with us.

From retailers to farmers, hoteliers to holiday park owners, we're here for all South West businesses. Our aim is to help you save water and money and to operate more efficiently without any fuss or disruption; after all, you've got your own business to run. Since 2011 we’ve helped business customers save over £4m from their water bills. We can help you too.

If you’d like support or help or require a free water audit to ensure you’re not wasting water and paying to much for your bill, please contact Andrew.Phillipe@pennonwaterservices.co.uk.

Clockwork Marketing

Specialists in the tourism industry, Clockwork Marketing works with independent hotels, restaurants and tourism businesses. They have an impressive portfolio of national and international clients; each is unique, but they all have one thing in common: they want to grow. With 25 years’ experience, the team understand the industry intricately, and apply a common sense approach to marketing, strategy and technology.

Clockwork help hospitality businesses save costs and achieve growth by ensuring that their marketing is effective and their strategy is geared for success. Many of the businesses they work with get in touch because they’ve found themselves:

Playing ‘Marketing Roulette’: Taking chances, unsure what works and to what extent; Suffering ‘Marketing Paralysis’: Not doing any meaningful marketing because they don’t know where to start; or Lacking something: They want to be market leaders and need a strategy to stand out. Over the years, Clockwork Marketing has grown considerably; today, they are a talented team of 22 marketers, strategists, designers and developers. Their services include responsive website design, SEO, social media management, email marketing, marketing management, branding, design services, OTA strategy, direct mail, copywriting, content management, online gift voucher software and business transformation consultancy – all under one roof!

Screech Owl Sanctuary

Screech Owl Sanctuary and Wildlife Park was founded in 1990 and the largest collection of owls in the South West with many species from all over the world and is zoo licensed.

We provide education to both adults and children and allow them the opportunity of close encounters with these beautiful and majestic birds.

We have won many awards including Gold award for Small Attraction in the Cornwall Tourism Awards 2015, 2016 & 2017. A Bronze Award for “Access & Inclusivity” 2016 & Silver Award 2017, as well as “Winnner of winners”; Silver award for Small Attraction at South West Tourism Excellence Awards 2016 and Gold Award in 2017 & 2018; Bronze Award for Small Attraction in the Visit England Awards 2018.

Isles of Scilly Steamship Company

You can? with Isles of Scilly Travel from Exeter, Newquay and Land’s End Airports and enjoy breath-taking aerial views of this beautiful cluster of islands from the comfort of your Skybus plane.

Flights from Land’s End take just 15 minutes or half an hour from Newquay, and operate all year round from Monday to Saturday. There are scheduled ?ights from Exeter Airport between March and October six days a week which reach Scilly in under an hour. Prices start from £140 return from Land’s End Airport.

Island Helicopters starts from May 2018 with up to eight flights available from Land’s End Airport to St Mary’s, six days a week, and return fares are priced from £215.

From spring through to late autumn, the Scillonian lll passenger ferry sails up to seven days a week between Penzance and St. Mary’s. Prices start from £90 return.

To book your journey, phone 01736 334220 or visit the website

SBPR

Providing cost effective PR and marketing services for small, medium and large businesses throughout Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon and beyond, sbpr combine traditional and digital public relations and marketing with copywriting and social media management - to stay at the forefront of a fast changing industry. Whether you want help raising your profile, driving traffic to your website, undertaking a short term campaign or managing an event, sbpr have the expertise to get results.

pkf Francis Clark

Award winning South West Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers providing advice and assistance to the Leisure and Tourism sector, private clients and businesses of all types. Particular expertise in tax planning. We also provide corporate finance, insolvency, and financial advice.

Best Days Out Cornwall: Cornwall Association of Tourist Attractions

Best Days Out Cornwall features the top 40 attractions in the county including stunning gardens and country houses, fascinating industrial heritage, amazing wildlife, exciting theme parks and  the best in arts, museums and galleries. Pick up our must-have guide at shops, service stations, accommodation providers and tourist attractions across Cornwall. Visit us online or follow us on all social channels.

Wolf Rock

Wolf Rock is one of the South West’s leading marketing agencies, specialising in building tourism, food and drink and lifestyle brands. We offer a fully integrated service that provides unrivalled experience, joined-up thinking and ensures that budgets work hard. Firstly, we are strategists and planners, with specialist skills in brand development. Secondly, we are creative thinkers and doers, coming up with the ideas that fuel marketing and delivering them as design, digital projects and campaigns that get great results (and win awards). And thirdly, we are tenacious project managers who keep the marketing plates spinning with targeted PR, social media and marketing communications. Day in, day out.

Christie & Co

Christie & Co are leading advisors in the sale, acquisition and valuation of all categories of hotel and leisure businesses and have provided advice to clients within their specialist sectors for over 80 years. In 2017, the South West team won the coveted EGi Overall Top Agent award in the Hotels and Leisure sector for the region. This industry accolade is awarded to the advisor that sells the most leisure related business and it is the eighth year in a row we have won it in the South West, illustrating our pedigree and knowledge of these markets.

Our coverage extends to 15 offices throughout the UK, 14 mainland European offices and a Asia desk which offers our clients exposure to this huge market and its increasing appetite for the UK leisure sectors.

We offer unrivalled local and national expertise to both private and corporate operators alike. In each of our offices, we employ a team of experts, with both sector-specific experience and local knowledge.

eviivo

eviivo only works with independent hosts and hoteliers, providing B&B and hotel booking software for anyone with rooms to sell and a story to tell. We provide the original all-in-one booking suite for over 6,600 properties across the UK. eviivo suite helps you manage bookings from your website and all the leading travel sites (Expedia, Booking.com, TripAdvisor etc.) in just one click, while staying in control of your rates and policies. Confirm bookings and take payment anytime, anywhere, on any device. You can even save thousands of pounds on essentials for running your business with exclusive offers from eviivo marketplace.

Skinner's Brewery

In 1997, armed only with his own surname, a chap called Steve Skinner dreamed of setting up a community brewery in Cornwall. On the banks of the Truro River, he and his family brewed a ground-breaking golden ale and named it after the tin-mining faeries of local myth.

With Cornish Knocker, Steve set out his stall for concocting trailblazing ales, following it with another legendary brew, a brazen Cornish bitter called Betty Stogs, which CAMRA named Britain’s best bitter. Our pale ales Porthleven and Lushingtons are also SIBA South West Award winners for 2016.

Countless barrels and hundreds of awards later, our brewery has grown but remains a family business rooted in the area we live and work, whether that’s in sourcing Cornish-grown barley, doing our bit for our corner of the planet or enjoying a bit of surfing and shanty-singing.

Tevi

Tevi (Cornish for ‘grow’) is a brand new ESIF-funded venture aiming to support economic and environmental growth in Cornwall. We’re the only project of our kind that brings together an economic growth agenda with an environmental one, hand in hand. The initiative, which runs over the next 3 years, provides small and medium-sized enterprises across the county with expert consultation, opportunities for recognition and certification, as well as access to grant funding, in order to help realise Cornwall’s unique strategic commitment to environmental growth. Tevi also supports enterprises to become more efficient with their natural resource use, to minimise their waste and increase recycling initiatives as part of the global transition towards a circular economy. The venture is led by the University of Exeter, and is delivered through a partnership with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Cornwall Council and the Cornwall Development Company. To hear more about what Tevi can do for your enterprise, please see www.tevi.co.uk or email info@tevi.co.uk

Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Cornwall Wildlife Trust is the leading local charity working to protect and enhance Cornwall’s wildlife and wild places. We are passionate about all aspects of nature conservation and work only in Cornwall. We want to see Cornwall richer in wildlife, cared for and appreciated by one and all. The Trust is guided by our mission to rebuild biodiversity and engage everyone with the natural environment.

The Samphire Club

A private members club launched in April 2016 to promote effective networking throughout the South West and London.

Made up of invited members and corporate partners from the private sector, The Samphire Club will be small enough to be exclusive but with the connections and know-how to bring the South West and London closer together.

Our members enjoy great company, great times and make valuable business connections while relishing the finest food and drink the South West has to offer.

Member benefits include:

• A club magazine and membership card with privileges
• 4 free events a year
• Business networking events
• The satisfaction of helping us raise funds for our nominated charities and attending the annual charity dinner.

The Samphire Club: good for members, good for business and good for London and the South West.

Visit Cornwall

Cornwall has been consistently voted one of Britain’s top tourist destinations. As the official tourist board, it is Visit Cornwall’s mission to build on this success and seize every opportunity to continue to make Cornwall a quality destination of choice.

Cornwall Airport Newquay

Cornwall Airport Newquay is a key part of the tourism infrastructure for Cornwall, allowing easy access to the County for thousands of tourists with 20 direct destinations during the summer months.

Daily connections to Birmingham, Manchester, Heathrow, Southend and Dublin in peak times ensure the Airport plays a significant role in keeping Cornwall connected to the rest of the UK, allowing great access for British ‘staycations’.

The Airport now also serves several top European destinations including Dusseldorf and Stuttgart, routes that have been extremely popular with German visitors encouraging a huge increase in fly-drive holidays and a massive jump in visitor numbers in this market.

PureComms

PureComms is a multi-award winning Telecoms and IT provider operating across the south west and nationally.  With offices in Cornwall (St Austell) and Bristol, we provide a range of Telecoms and IT services to SME’s through to corporate clients, including Bristol Airport, Inns of Devon and Cornwall, Bonhams, Britannia Windows, JJ Fox and Redrock.  Products and services we offer include telephone systems (including hosted VoIP), mobiles, bill analysis, cabling, network infrastructure and IT services.

Our success has been built on developing trust and close working relationships, as well as our speed of responsiveness for our clients, who depend on robust and reliable connectivity systems.

Jo Downs Handmade Glass

Jo Downs is one of the world’s most respected fused glass designers. Working from her Cornwall studio, Jo’s work draws inspiration from the beautiful coastal landscape while her advanced fusion techniques allow for the creation of abstract designs of great individuality and depth.

Along with her popular range of handmade giftware and statement interior pieces such as wall panels and art frames, Jo has developed her studio to undertake large architectural and interior projects. This unique facility and her innovative designs have earned her commissions for cruise liners, churches, hotels and corporate headquarters. She has also enjoyed hundreds of private commissions, producing windows, mirrors, wall panels and other artworks for a variety of homes.

Seymac Distribution

Seymac Distribution was established in 1989 with the sole aim of promoting Tourist Attractions and events in Cornwall. Seymac began in a small bedroom office and has since grown to become a distributor of 18 million leaflets per year for more than 100 top tourist attractions.

Our company is now based in a purpose-built 12,000 square foot warehouse on the Treleigh Industrial Estate, Redruth. It’s from here that our dedicated team sort and distribute promotional material for clients to around 4,000 outlets in Cornwall.

Seymac has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the South West tourism industry and it is with this knowledge that we are able to work for Cornwall’s major tourism attractions.

As well as individual leaflets, Seymac also distribute around 225,000 information packs to Cornwall’s visitors each year.

Working to our client’s specifications we are able to offer an unrivalled service, and we are constantly looking for ways to expand the business in order to fulfil all of our clients’ needs.

MiHi Digital

MiHi Digital has worked with more than 70 award winning tourism businesses from across the country over the past four years and built a proven track record when it comes to increasing website visitors, conversions and bookings for a wide range of accommodation providers.

They work with all tourism business on website design, search engine optimistation and social media management, as well as offering a wide range of training to business owners.

Be The Business

Be the Business is bringing together companies large and small to make the UK a hub for the most ambitious firms in the world.  We’re working with local business leaders to make Cornwall home to the best hospitality businesses in the country through demonstrating and inspiring you to unleash your potential. 

Being involved in the Cornwall Hospitality Leader’s Network gives you the opportunity to ask yourself “how good it my business really?”, and with the help or management tools developed specifically for your use and with the support of industry experts, improve your business practices and profitability.  Find out more here.

Welcome to Excellence

Welcome to Excellence is the the leading provider of customer service skills training in the UK.

Why do you need customer service training? In today’s competitive markets, customer service determines the winners and losers.

As the leading deliverer of customer service training in the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors, Welcome to Excellence is also now seen as the way forward by retail businesses, transport providers, local authorities, universities and many other organisations for which quality customer service is critical.  Options include the highly rated 'Welcome Host Gold', 'Welcome All' and 'Exceeding Visitor Expectations' courses, available in-house or through open courses, plus a range of more sector-specific courses.

If entering the Awards, always refer to these and other courses booked by your staff.

NFU Mutual

Our network of specialist local Agents work extensively with the hospitality and retail industries - everything from local coffee shops to a chain of restaurants or food stores and urban chic hotels.

We understand that your business could be impacted by a number of issues - cyber attacks, damage to your property, the loss of a major supplier or customer, the loss of a key person through illness, or an outbreak of food poisoning. But you’re not alone. Your NFU Mutual Agent can help you plan for the unexpected and get you back on your feet should things go wrong.

The right insurance starts with the right conversation. Contact our local Agent today by visiting nfumutual/branches

Soundview

Soundview creates marketing videos and Virtual Reality experiences for South West destination and tourism businesses using the latest cutting edge video, immersive, VR/360 and drone technology. We deliver award-winning promotional films that reach millions of global viewers. Whether for websites, television advertising campaigns, social media, events or immersive tours, we connect you with your customers.

By working closely with our clients, we ensure each film tells a unique story that reflects the quality of what`s on offer. We combine excellent storytelling, the latest innovations and the highest production values, to turn viewers into visitors.

"It was your video that made Tree Top Escapes a success in the first year...100% occupancy." Tree Top Escape, Millbrook Estate, North Devon.

"Thank you for a great job that has without a doubt has seen our bookings increase this year and been a very worthwhile investment." Petruth Paddocks,Campsite, Cheddar, Somerset.

To find out more contact Gareth on 01752 516038 07831548604 gareth@soundviewmedia.co.uk

Hotel Perfect

At Hotel Perfect we don’t just sell software, we use our collective experience and extensive knowledge of technology to bring you an all-encompassing hospitality package. Our range of products include a Property Management System (PMS), Direct Online Booking Engine, Channel Management, Hospitality EPoS, Dashboard Reporting, Guest Relationship Management; and an array of APPS and additional products and services to help maximise revenue and increase efficiency.

A well-established company based in the South West providing specialist IT solutions to the hospitality industry throughout the UK.

Stephens Scown

Stephens Scown LLP is an award-winning legal firm with offices in Exeter, Truro and St Austell. It has over 290 staff, including more than 50 partners, and is one of the largest law firms in Devon and Cornwall, offering a broad range of expert business and personal legal services, as well as expertise in a number of key market sectors including holiday parks, food and drink, agriculture, renewable energy and mining.

Founded in 1938, Stephens Scown is consistently ranked highly in the UK’s top two independent legal guides, Chambers and Legal 500 and was named one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Medium Sized Companies to Work For 2019, ranked at number 44 – the fifth consecutive year they have made it into the top 100. Clients range from individuals to SMEs, FTSE and international companies.

Purple Cloud

Purple Cloud Consultancy has considerable experience of delivering high quality training and offers a range of fun, innovative and inspirational training workshops.

• As the South West delivery partner for the highly successful Welcome to Excellence programme we offer a range of flexible customer service workshops that can be tailored to any business, destination or sector
• Providing the biggest opportunity for personal development in the South West through the ‘Art of Being Brilliant’ seminars, we offer the opportunity to boost happiness, performance and business by creating a positive environment
• Working with some of the South West’s top trainers we are able to offer a range of bespoke courses covering topics such as Leadership & Management, Team Building, Communication, Performance Management and Business and Personal Skills Development
• Offering a range of customer research packages to provide valuable insight into how to manage customer expectations, through the use of mystery shopping, staff surveys and customer feedback

Vickery Holman

As one of the most established and well respected firms of Surveyors, Vickery Holman deliver property consultancy services across the South West. With offices in Truro, Plymouth, Exeter and Bristol they deliver local expertise within the region to their regional and national clients. Regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors their local experts offer a full range of services and specialise within the leisure industry to provide:-

Valuation for secured lending, accounting and tax purposes;
Business rates consultancy for hotels, holiday parks and self-catering complexes;
Service charge administration and management for commercial property and holiday parks
Building surveying services including surveys for purchase, project management and planned maintenance and new developments.