Tourism is in Torbay’s blood – it’s one of our key industries, attracting visitors from around the world to enjoy our fabulous sea air, wonderful sights and warm welcome. Whilst most people think of holidaymakers and leisure breaks, business tourism is also a vital source of income for the Bay. Conference delegates, meetings and exhibitions all bring many people into the area all spending money. From their overnight accommodation, to restaurants, pubs and clubs, each delegate that stays is worth £212 to our economy. That’s a significant and very useful contribution to the Bay in these difficult times.

I run the Riviera Centre in Torbay. Many of you might think of it as a great place to relax in the health club, or somewhere you might go for a swim, but we also provide many other facilities. In fact, we’re the top conference destination south of Bristol – there’s no equivalent  venue of our size anywhere else. We’re proud of our Centre and we want to make it the very best we possibly can.

So in order to do that, we have to look at the competition. English seaside towns are hard to beat for a business conference. Great scenery, good lively entertainment and a host of activities to boot. What sets one apart from another though? Well, it’s probably going to be no surprises that it’s accessibility.

As a conference organiser – if you want to have a straightforward event, you may well book Birmingham or London, or anywhere else that has 360 degrees of transport infrastructure surrounding the place. You can jump on a train, bus or plane or drive to most of these places. It’ll be crowded, probably full of traffic jams, and dirty, but you expect that. It’s a city after all. But if you’re coming to a seaside town, you want to experience something different. You want clean air, great views, good food and let’s face it - stressfree travel. You’re going the extra mile and you don’t want to spend that in a traffic jam.

It might seem a minor consideration, it might be totally illogical, but it’s a powerful psychological turnoff.  You’ve driven or travelled hundreds of miles to get here, usually at high speed, and then you’re suddenly mired in traffic, slowed to a crawl. It’s not a good feeling. Ironically - ask people what they detest these days and it’ll be queues, and possibly telephone answer systems. But people feel they would rather queue to get through security at an airport than wait in a traffic jam.  And as the old adage says – time is money. As an employer, you don’t want your workforce sat idly in congestion on their way to an event, and nor will a conference organiser. It’s a big deterrent, so we have to spend a lot of time convincing people that it will be worthwhile.

One of the prime considerations for the industry is the accommodation here. It’s no coincidence that there are not any top name hotel chains here. All right, we do have some very nice hotels, but we have too few of international renown.  We do need to attract top-end, high profile Brands. Not just for leisure and holiday-makers, but business people who want the recognition factor. Competitive destinations have branded hotels and delegates often want the perceived quality that these offer. If you’ve spent all day working during a conference you want to feel valued.  Irrespective of whether the branded hotel is better than the independent, perception is reality! And interestingly, if business travellers have a good time on their conference, then 15% of them are likely to return as leisure visitors. That’s a great success rate, and one we’d do well to build on.

Perhaps more controversially, improved accessibility will help to bring the whole market up and enhance the entire tourism offer. If poorer and less well run establishments can’t cope and go under, then is that actually a bad thing? I don’t think so.  They have the potential to do us all a disservice. Tatty shopfronts, run down accommodation or shabby fast food joints don’t really do us justice.  Competition forces us to improve and galvanises us into trying to do better, offer more and deliver the best.  It’s a virtuous circle – the better we get, the more we attract and the more money comes into our economy. Who’s going to argue with that?

Well, there will be some. There will be people who cannot and will not accept change. They want to keep Torbay in some bygone age. Perhaps they can overlook the scruffy parts of town, but I don’t think our visitors do.  Torbay might have a lot to offer, but it’s resting on its laurels. That’s part of why it’s vital to look at, and understand, the competition. It’s critical to any successful business and economy. We need to be the best and if we can’t appreciate what others are offering, we will just wither away, a fading seaside town.

So change is long overdue – we have to create jobs for our children and our grandchildren. We cannot afford to sit about deliberating and going over the same old ground and whether it’s necessary or not. Regeneration, jobs – they’re vital and we need to get on with it.

Dynamism and getting on with it are what makes my team here at the Centre outstanding. There’s no other word for it. They work hard, they enjoy their jobs and they do all they can in their power to ensure that people visiting us have a great time. I’ve got award winning marketers, amazing front of house staff, brilliant backroom guys – all doing their very best to make our visitors’ days memorable and be ambassadors for Torbay. We strive to be great and it shows: people come back to us and tell us how much they appreciated the fact we go the extra mile. It’s about time, then, that we made the journey from Pen Inn as enjoyable and stress-free as the welcome on the English Riviera.