7:00pm Wednesday 13th January 2010
By Stephen Bailey
BOURNEMOUTH and Poole’s “main” tourism campaign for 2010 will be promoting watersports like surfing.
The two towns are billing the area as “The Coast With the Most” with the tagline “Love Watersports, Love Bournemouth and Poole”.
The joint campaign is supposed to be a cost-effective way of taking advantage of the town’s famous beachfront.
Mark Smith, Bournemouth’s head of tourism, said activities are stretched along the 10 miles of beach from Poole Harbour to Boscombe Surf Reef and beyond. “It’s an unrivalled watersports offer,” he said, speaking at January’s meeting of Bournemouth Chamber of Trade “We can’t find anywhere in Europe that comes close to the number of arranged activities you can find in this area.
“It’s something we perhaps take for granted because it’s on our back door. It’s going to be our main theme of this year.”
The tourism bodies have produced leaflets that says there are 25 watersports on offer, including, fishing, kite surfing, body boarding, sailing and canoeing. The events that will be promoted include the Animal Windfest in Poole, and the Zapcat speedboat races off Bournemouth, Mr Smith said there had already had lots of press interest and the tourism department planned to organise visits for travel journalists.
The leaflet names 22 watersports operators, mostly in Poole.
Bruce Grant-Braham, chairman of the Poole Tourism Partnership, said: “Historically, perhaps, the majority of watersports events have taken place in Poole, but it’s really good to link with the potential of the surf reef.
“Financially, we have got together some money, it’s not a huge amount.
“It’s a very cost-effective promotion because what is the area already known for? It’s the beach.”
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