As part of the pitch process, Discover Devon has charged prospective candidates – including incumbent agency The Flagship Group – with developing a marketing and comms scheme to make Devon’s tourism industry more competitive, targeting wealthy out-of-season visitors.
Discover Devon said the brief would involve raising awareness of the county’s natural and historical assets, rather than promoting it simply as a tourist destination.
The promotional drive has set a target to boost the value of tourism by £2.25m over three years (it was worth £33m last year) and raise the number of tourist nights spent in the county by 45,000 over three years, from 1.1 million nights in 2003.