A Visit from the CEO of Visit England
On Monday 15th April, we were delighted to welcome some of the most influential figures in English tourism aboard for a perfectly breezy River Exe Cruise.
Towards the start of April, we received the utterly brilliant news that Devon has been awarded a Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP), putting our glorious county very firmly on the world map for both domestic and international visitors.
The LVEP scheme is one of the Government’s key recommendations, in response to the de Bois Review of destination management and aims to transform England’s visitor economy landscape, through a new and robust structure – sharing resources, priorities and targets. Ultimately, the de Bois Review highlighted the fragmentation of destination management and Devon was specifically named in the report as one of the counties which needs particular attention. Counties across England have been required to apply for the LVEP accreditation, via a lengthy and highly complex process and we could not be more delighted that Devon and Partners were successfully welcomed to the program alongside 32 existing members from other counties, this month. This means that Devon will be included in many exciting events, familiarisation visits for inbound visitors, international itineraries and so much more. It really is big news and it simply wasn’t an option for us not to be included.
We have many exceptional businesses, organisations and individuals to thank for this, not least, our friends at Visit Devon.
We feel truly humbled to have been selected as one of only two attractions in Devon, to host the CEO of Visit England Andrew Stokes OBE, Chair of Visit England, Lady Victoria Borwick, Visit England Director for the South West, Robin Tjolle, Chair of Visit Devon, Vince Flower and the very wonderful Sally Everton of Visit Devon on board today and what better way for us to celebrate this recent news.
We have a winner!
With summer just around the corner and the evenings getting longer, we thought it was time to have a photographic competition to help remind us how lucky we are to live in an amazingly beautiful area.
We had such a strong range of photographs for our followers to vote on and it really did put a smile on our faces seeing them all – thank you to all who entered.
The competition however, is now over and last week, on our closing date, we had a winner! Dom Tancock entered this photo showing the amazing cliff structure and how you can enjoy it from our lower deck with uninterrupted views. Dom had a whopping 19% of the overall votes for his photograph and we love it!
If you have any photographs you want to share with us, please do. We always love seeing them!
Doing our bit for Devon
We are no strangers to hosting familiarisation visits for prospective group travel organisers and we work regularly alongside Devon’s Top Attractions to organise varied and exciting itineraries for our visitors.
This month, we welcomed a group of group organisers from the across the country, in collaboration with the TLH Hotel collection, from Torquay.
Showcasing the Exe Estuary and Devon coastlines is not a tough job, we simply let the views speak for themselves!
It is amazing and humbling to be given the chance to help showcase our beautiful Devon, our amazing town and to showcase our thriving family business.
Fish and Chips!
Our Fish and Fizz Evening Cruise is truly one of the best ways to spend an evening in Devon.
Setting sail at 19:00 on Saturday 11th May, join us for a cruise of the tranquil waters of the River Exe or Devon’s magnificent coastline, before returning back to Exmouth Marina.
Sit back and relax with a glass of prosecco and a generous portion of award-winning fish and chips from local, award-winning Krispies, who have been voted the UK’s Best Fish and Chip Shop! And if fish is not quite your thing – do not worry they also offer a delicious vegetarian or tasty chicken option!
This is an extremely popular cruise and advanced booking is essential!
Pride of Exmouth Update
As many of you have realised, the Pride of Exmouth had been missing from the stunning views of the River Exe for much of the past month – but why? Well, we have been giving her some well-deserved pampering and TLC (we all need some from time to time).
Over the last few months, she has been getting a fresh lick of paint (amongst many other things) and as such, had been out of the water. Weather conditions have been challenging to say the least – there are very few boatyards across the country which are able to accommodate a bota of her size undercover and this year we were down at a boatyard in Polruan and fully exposed to the elements! The wind and rain could not have been more poorly timed to be honest but the boys worked tirelessly, did not lose faith and the results are truly fantastic. A good job well done!
She is now back in her home waters but the work does not stop here; since he return to Exmouth, we have continued to work very hard to complete interior improvements, engineering works and of course our very important annual Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) inspections which this year included a full audit of ALL of our paperwork – risk assessments, record keeping, engineering checks, lifesaving equipment certifications – the whole works! Strangely enough, we were actually really looking forward to the audit; we work very hard throughout the year to ensure that our paperwork is pristine in terms of presentation, continuous record-keeping and generally doing much more that the bare minimum and therefore, we were able to go into the audit with confidence and a really open mind, eager to hear about any possible improvements which we can potentially make going forwards. The feedback from the audit was excellent and we are excited to implement one or two changes to make things even more streamlined.
We are incredibly proud of our small but very mighty team of water and shore-based colleagues – the creme de la creme of the passenger boating world!
Time for a little Something Special!
We have so many Special Events for May! Book in early though, as these are generally oversubscribed and fill up fast!
Click the trip above to go directly to the booking page for more information.
Still to announce this Christmas!
We are being asked a lot about Christmas trips for 2024 and in particular, our Sail with Santa Cruises.
Fear not, you are in the right place to be the first to hear about our Christmas Cruises for this year – we will be sure to release all of our Christmas sailings and announce them via our newsletter in due course!
Something Special
This month will see the start of our Live Band Nights aboard Pride of Exmouth! Handpicked local acts from the South West will be performing from May to December.
- May 3rd – Reckless
- May 24th – Carnaby Street
- July 20th – Nine Off Notes
- 17th August – The Club Classics Experience
- 27th September – Carnaby Street
- 11th October – Reckless
- 26th October – Reggaeskas
- 29th November – The Dockneys
- 30th November – Men in Black
- 7th December – Ian Boyd
Get To Know Us!
Sign up to our newsletter for monthly highlights, entertaining anecdotes and details of upcoming cruises and events!