Media Coverage
The English Riviera continues to be a popular destination for both UK and Overseas journalists to visit and the English Riviera BID Company helps fund these visits to maximise publicity for the area. Presented below are some of the features that have resulted from journalists visits.
Recent interviews and enquiries have included:
- Sky News – ‘pinging’ crisis
- BBC Spotlight – various
- BBC Radio Devon
- ITV Westcountry – Covid impacts
- Greatest Hits Radio
- Channel 5 – Susan Calman’s – Great Day Out (new series being filmed)
- Channel 5 – South West Coast Path (Michael Portillo)
- ITV – Joanne Lumley – Home Sweet Home
- VisitBritain – England’s Seafood Coast
- Telegraph
- Saturday Mail
- Daily Mail – Simon Heptinstall – Riviera Revival
- TripAdvisor
- Western Morning News
- Torbay Weekly – various
- Herald Express – various
- traveldinerelax.com
- Coast Magazine
- UK Government (Tourism Minister Visits)
Local Media
- The English Riviera BID Company is frequently interviewed on South West tourism matters and special tourism features regularly on ITV Westcountry and BBC Spotlight.
National Media
- In August 2018, The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) cast were due to film in the English Riviera for a ‘short break’ episode. The series peaked in 2018 with over 1 million viewers and the cast had a combined Instagram following of nearly 12 million people. The episode was due to air in October 2018 but was unfortunately cancelled.
- In February 2019, The Guardian inquired about featuring The English Riviera in their British Boltholes series.
- In April 2019, the ERBID team liaised with Phil Tuckett from BBC Inside Out to discuss The English Riviera featuring on ‘Britain’s Busiest Summer’ on BBC2. However, unfortunately, the programme didn’t lead anywhere.
- Simon Heptinstall, editor and writer for Mail on Sunday Travel section. Simon visited the English Riviera from 28th to 30th April 2019. His article was published in June 2019 – “The English Riviera – It’s all the rage again”
- In June 2019, The Daily Mail published an article featuring photos of the Air Show – “Perfectly-timed photo captures RAF Typhoon creating its own cloud”. The website is read by 180 million people per day.
- Steve Li, producer for The Gadget Show, requested footage of the English Riviera for an introduction segment of a programme that featured local entrepreneurs in July 2019. The programme is due to be aired in Autumn 2019.
- Philip Gradwell, journalist for The Sun visited on 2nd-4th July 2019, co-ordinated by James from Firefly PR. The article was published on 10th August 2019 – “The 25 in Torquay is truly the World’s Best B&B — it’s Fawlt-less“
International Media
- Elspeth Jenkins, fashion and lifestyle editor of Marie Claire Belgium and photographer, Christian Maes due to stay on 18th & 19th August 2019. She will be visiting Greenway and staying at The Grand Hotel.
Bloggers and Influencers
- In June 2019, Liz Madeley from Day Out With The Kids published an article entitled ‘50 Best Seaside Towns in UK‘. Both Torquay and Paignton featured in the Top 10.
- In June 2019, on National Fish and Chips Day, Visit Britain used the ‘Taste of the English Riviera’ film on Twitter – tweeting it out to their 385,000+ followers.
US Connections Project
- Fionn Davenport, journalist from Lonely Planet was commissioned by the US Connections Project and coordinated by Emma Tatlow, Destination Plymouth. Fionn visited the English Riviera from 7th and 8th July 2018.
- Fiona Mclean from London Unattached, visited English Riviera and Greenway from 9th to 11th July 2019.
Seafood FEAST
During the 2018 FEAST, the English Riviera was visited by German journalists, including:
- Paul Stanner, editor and travel writer for Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
- Gisela Steinhauer, radio presenter and writer for WDR2 Radio ‘Sonntagsfragen’
Seafood Coast
- Joachim Reinshagen (editor) and Britta von Lucke (TV presenter) filming during 30th March to 6th April 2019. A 60-minute TV special “Spring in Devon” filmed by NDR Nordseereport, with 5-6 small film broadcasts on nationwide TV station, ARD with an expected 650,000 – 1 million German viewers.
- Ella Mae Wester from Vriendin – a weekly women’s lifestyle magazine – print circulation: 611,000 and unique monthly visitors: 123,814
- Jody Mijts, OngewoonLekker.com – an online culinary platform – unique monthly visitors: 60,000
- Sophie van der Meer from ELLE Eten – a culinary magazine/website of ELLE – print circulation: 30,000 and unique monthly visitors: 425,000
- Ron Peereboom Voller from RonReizen – a travel platform for ages 40+ (former editor in chief of Telegraaf) – unique monthly visitors: 75,000
The 25 Boutique B&B named the ‘Best B&B in the World’
In January 2019, The 25 Boutique B&B in Torquay was named the ‘Best B&B in the World’ by TripAdvisor. This has been the biggest ERBID PR story for 2019 and garnered a lot of media coverage, in print, on the radio and on TV. Below are a selection of the press coverage:
PRESS
https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/8245967/tripadvisor-users-name-torquay-b-and-b-best-world/
https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/uk-ireland/best-bb-hotels-world-revealed-13892276
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/devon-bb-named-best-world-13898284
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/23/torquay-bed-and-breakfast-tops-list-of-worlds-best
https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/23/worlds-best-bb-devon-8378016/
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/torquays-25-boutique-bb-trip-1107149
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/devon-guest-house-named-best-2454953
https://www.thetraveltrunk.net/worlds-best-b-and-b-voted-on-trip-advisor/
http://www.radioexe.co.uk/news-and-features/local-news/torquay-bandb-named-best-in-the-world/
https://www.thetraveltrunk.net/worlds-best-b-and-b-voted-on-trip-advisor/
RADIO
BBC R4 Today Programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000253g 1h43m03s
BBC R4 World at One: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0002543 41m00s
Radio 5 Live: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00023h0 56m57s
LBC Eddie Mair https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/aod/?episodeId=2526b7f2-7282-481e-b00b-5397d41c2f82 26m20s
BBC Radio WM – Danny Kelly https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06xfg99 45m52
BBC Radio Devon – George Sparkes & Laura James Breakfast Show https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06xh71j 2h24m12s
Heart FM – Matt & Victoria
talkRADIO
Eamonn Holmes https://talkradio.co.uk/radio/listen-again/1548259200#
talkRADIO Choose 11.30-12.00 link, then at 20m45s (Julian)
Mike Graham https://talkradio.co.uk/radio/listen-again/1548324000#
TV
BBC Spotlight
ITV WestCountry News
ITV Lunchtime News
Jeremy Vine- Channel 5 – 1hr29min29s – https://www.my5.tv/jeremy-vine/season-2019/episode-18