Explore Dartmouth celebrated its first birthday on Wednesday, April 30

Laura Campbell is Director & Tourism Lead for Dartmouth Tourism & Business Hub- Explore Dartmouth and explained a bit of the history:

"There's been a visitor centre here for several years, and it's gone through various incarnations.

"In 2023, things were struggling a little, and a group of us businesswomen decided to try and see what we could do to put together a solution that we could keep the visitor centre open, keep it thriving, keep it growing, so that we can look after all of our visitors that are coming into town, but also support our business community who provide the tourism product and all the different products that make up the tourism offering that Dartmouth has.

"We evolved the visitor centre into a tourism and business hub.

"Half of the centre is now a classic visitor centre, so it has merchandise and gifts that are produced locally with local photographers, local businesses, and their products that they sort of produce, we retail here and then we've got a lot of our local partners who promote and advertise their products, their hotels, their restaurants, et cetera, with us, their experiences.

"We link up with many local organisations to showcase everything that Dartmouth has got to offer including on the River Dart.

Explore Dartmouth has also been collaborating with other similar operations in the South Hams as Laura outlines:

"We've recently teamed up with Visit Totnes for a campaign as well to promote both areas and all the amazing events that we do through the year because that brings people into the area and then we can showcase everything else and keep them here and get them staying longer, et cetera.

“So it's become a real community asset, a real hub of collaboration.

“We are also now working with Kingsbridge and Salcombe, so it's all coming together."

On the business side, it's a place where businesses can meet with a team of volunteers with professional skills who can help and support.

Explore Dartmouth is also a conduit for many of the independent businesses in town that offer professional skills so they can get people together.

If somebody needs marketing or a graphic designer or an accountant or whatever, they can find them.

Laura then explained how Explore Dartmouth differs from what went before:

"We did a fresh brand, a fresh take, we wanted to draw a line on all the history that's gone before and move forward with a collaborative vision, working with the Chamber, South Hams and Dartmouth Town Councils.

"So it's everyone pulling together for the good of the town, to showcase this amazing town.

"We've got a great team, we're always on the lookout for more professionals who want to come in and help us out.

"We're very fortunate with a really strong, capable board, a lot of knowledge, we've got a lot of connections with the industry, so we've got a lot to offer, a lot for people to get involved in.

So there are always opportunities, so that's the vision forward."