DARTMOUTH Business Improvement District should take total responsibility for marketing the town, it has been suggested.

At the same time the town’s Tourist Inform­ation Centre must focus on reducing costs and direct it strengths towards providing a visitor experience in Dartmouth rather than trying to compete with online booking services.

These are the views of Dartmouth Business Forum chairman Paul Reach who has put forward a set of ideas he believes will help both the TIC and BID work together in the best interests of the town. He also hopes his proposals will help the BID establish how important its role is over the next three years.

Mr Reach has said: ‘Having considered the results of the business forum survey on the TIC I would like to suggest a way forward for the TIC working in conjunction with the BID.

‘I personally believe the only way forward is to recognise that the TIC must become a visitor centre, with a lower cost base, focused on making the visitor experience in Dartmouth as enjoyable as possible, with a printed local guide, perhaps more branded retail offer, tickets to local events and trips.

‘They can no longer afford to market Dart­mouth through a full glossy brochure, or compete with the online booking services such as Trip Advisor, Owners Direct, Hotels.com and many others.

‘So the BID should take total responsibility for marketing Dartmouth, which they were elected to do, using the latest, cost effective digital marketing techniques.’

Mr Reach said he would like to see the licence for the destination website, Dartmouth­everytime.­com acquired by the BID with funds that could help support the TIC short term in restructuring around its new focus.

‘This will initially represent a cost burden on the BID with the annual licence fee for the TIC software at between £7,500 and £10,000, but this will need to be resolved with the suppliers,’ he said. ‘I do not believe a short term loan will help as a complete rethink of the TIC mission is necessary.’

Mr Reach stressed the proposals were his own and not an official recommendation of the business forum but he said the forum would be interested to hear members views on the way forward for the TIC.

Meanwhile, the TIC says it will be reopening for February half-term then on Fridays and Saturdays until Easter in March, when it will resume with its normal opening service.

Its new brochure will be launched on Wednes­day, February 10, at The Flavel Centre at 4pm.