Product Audit report

Access to information on Exmoor’s tourism product has been highlighted as a

key need within the “Strategic Action Plan for Sustainable Tourism for the
Greater Exmoor Area”. The QUEST project manager began work on a product
audit early in 2005. A database was commissioned to store and manage this
information which covers all tourism and tourism related businesses in Exmoor
National Park and the surrounding area (up to a 10 mile radius of the boundary).

The basis of the database were accommodation databases provided by South

West Tourism combined with the Exmoor Coast and Countryside database. A
great deal of work has been done to “clean” the resulting set of information.
Research has been carried out using the web and the TICs and National Park
Centres. In July 2005 all businesses on the database (around 1250 at that time)
were contacted by letter inviting them to join Visit Exmoor by completing a short
questionnaire about their businesses. This provided more valuable information
about the 447 businesses which replied.

The data-base provides a directory of tourism and tourism-related facilities in the

Greater Exmoor area. Information needs identified included: a) places to stay:
quality assured accommodation + non-assured accommodation; (b) places to
eat; (c) facilities and services open during the winter (out of main season); (d)
facilities and services suitable for people with disabilities; (e) events & festivals;
(f) outdoor activity providers; (g) transport providers – public and private hire; (h)
places to visit; (i) essential services – garages, food shops, post offices,
chemists, doctors, etc; and (j) arts and crafts. The information for each
establishment includes names and addresses, and a variety of information
relating to facilities, training needs, etc.

It will be used as a centralised data-base and source of detailed information

which could be used in the future by all Visit Exmoor staff for marketing, research
and visitor information purposes. This could include: monitoring changes in the
number of businesses providing graded and non-graded accommodation;
business which practice sustainable tourism; places accessible to visitors with
disabilities; family friendly businesses; cyclist and walker friendly accommodation
and to monitor the training needs of owners and staff; contacting the businesses,
by letter, email or ‘phone to make them aware of training opportunities and
marketing initiatives.

It will be possible to select which businesses to contact to offer training, for

example, those who have shown an interest in a particular area or all non-
assessed accommodation to invite them to seminars on grading. Staff will be
able to contact businesses inviting them to advertise in the Coast and Country
brochure.
Negotiations are underway with pcwebshop to enable the database to feed the
Visit Exmoor website. If this data-base is to link into the web-site it will need to
be accessible via the internet in order that a number of people are able to up-
date the information (to varying degrees, through the use of password permission
systems) in order that the data-base and web pages can be kept up-to-date.
This will also mean that all Visit Exmoor staff and TIC staff will have access to
the database even though they are not all currently networked.

Out of a total of 1240 businesses currently listed on the database 549 are within
Exmoor National Park and of those 391 are accommodation providers, 202 of
which have a quality grading.

The database lists 830 accommodation providers in total, 403 of which have a
quality grading from the AA, RAC or VisitBritain. 473 are serviced
accommodation and 368 self catering.

353 of the Visit Exmoor members are accommodation providers and 237 of those
are graded.

65 tourist attractions are listed and 208 places to eat (some of these will also be
listed as places to stay). There are 103 “tourism related essential services”
listed, which include post offices, shops, information centres, transport
companies, producers and there is the potential to add details of petrol stations,
public toilets and numerous other tourism related services and businesses.

The Tourism Product Audit database will provide a powerful tool for the tourism
staff in the area. It will always be a “work in progress”, needing constant up-
dating to ensure that the information contained in it is current. At some stage in
the future a decision will have to be made as to who carries out this work once
the QUEST project has ended.

Julie Lovett
November 2005