I’m travelling around the coastline of the UK this August. After visiting all the States of America and every Prefecture of Japan, it is now time to travel the entire coastline of the United Kingdom. It is also a great excuse to visit events and festivals in villages, towns and cities on our trip.
As you can imagine it takes a bit of organising when planning such a trip. After all, we will be on the road for 5 weeks. Besides planning the trip itself, where to eat, what to eat, where to sleep, and what to do, we decided to also keep an eye out for the different events and festivals that are happening along the coastline.
The Event Tutor on the road...
I’m not talking about the large commercial music festivals but rather about local food festivals, community events, markets, concerts, art shows, fun fairs, etc. Ideally these events should be admission free, as we are on a budget.
The search for such events turned out to be more difficult than expected. I’m willing to forgive small villages that they do not operate a proper website but towns and especially cities along the coast should have a tourist-friendly website. There are more poorly designed websites with little information regarding event calendars, than expected. Surely it is in the council’s interest to attract tourists?!
What’s happening?
In general it was really hard to find events that are happening in each place. Perhaps it is an idea to attach a diary to any event happening in, or near, each place. A user-friendly diary! Some websites are unnecessarily difficult to navigate. Make it easy for tourists to find out what is happening in your town or city.
Where is it?
Some websites mention the name of the events, what the events are about, and most website mention the timings as well. But, please mention where the events are taking place. An address, or postcode, is helpful for those out-of-towners who do not know the place very well.
Update your event calendar
Great for you that you had a food market in the centre of town in 2015! But should this still be on your website in 2017? Such information is not relevant for your tourists currently visiting your town. Please update your website regularly and remove events that have already taken place. Keep your website, or event calendar, relevant!
User friendly
Some of the websites are really not geared towards tourism. Some website took ages to load, others had inactive links on them, or, as mentioned above, featured events that happened last year. Make it easy for people to find your events. Sell your events and sell your town to tourists!
Some of the places I have been to so far could definitely do with more tourists. Some places deserve more tourists. Honestly, there are some hidden gems along the coast that more people should be aware of. Local councils should invest in proper websites. After all events can promote your town and attract more Pounds to the local economy.
Come on councils: you can do better! There is work to be done!
For more information please visit my website The Event Tutor. You can follow my road trip on CoastalRoadTrip.com