THE Exmoor Tourism Conference will be held at the Beach Hotel in Minehead on November 6 from 9.15am to 4.15pm.

The conference, for local tourism providers, will have key note speeches from experts in their field and professionally run workshops.

The conference will include the main launch of a new rural tourism toolkit developed by Hidden Britain as part of the COOL tourism project to inform and inspire businesses to market the advantages, and make more of, their rural assets in areas of both England and France, including Exmoor.

Dan James, Sustainable Economy manager at Exmoor National Park said: “At the conference participants will get a sneak preview of the new Visit Exmoor website and be able to listen to award winning travel writer Paul Bloomfield and Richard Hammond (founder of Green Traveller) speak about Great Exmoor Experiences and prolific Somerset writer James Crowden will be celebrating local distinctiveness.

“In addition to the impressive range of speakers and workshops, the conference is a great opportunity for businesses to catch up with each other to compare notes.”

Participants will be able to select two workshop sessions from the four on offer:

• An opportunity to find out more about the Hinkley Tourism Action Partnership (HTAP).

 EDF has made funding available via a Section 106 Agreement to support the tourism industry and the HTPA is tasked with targeting these funds in the most effective way.

This workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to find out more about the strategy and input to the action plan.

• Taking the Customer's View of Customer Service – looking at what customers expect to experience and the 'Moments of Truth' - what actually happens when they're here and what sets a business apart from the average.

• Hidden Britain toolkit - The COOL toolkit aims to provide businesses with an evolving resource of tools, tips and case studies around marketing, using local distinctiveness, saving costs and working together, which will help in delivering tourism products and experiences for customers.

• Marketing Exmoor Experiences - What is experiential tourism and how do we market it? Tim Wilkinson (PhD researcher at the University of Exeter) will explain his work on the perceptions people have of Exmoor.

Tim will be joined by Jim Hardcastle of Viper, a marketing / communications specialist, to explore the meaning behind 'experiential tourism', using a new resource guide to help businesses to take practical steps to market their business through the promotion of Exmoor experiences.

Attendance at the conference is £15 per person including lunch and refreshments.

The booking form can be downloaded as a word document here: www.exmoornationalpark.gov.uk/communities/tourism-trade/Events-and-training