At Mihi Digital, the best websites begin with listening, and when the team behind The Sunray in Osmington approached us to create their new website, they weren’t simply launching a pub. They were reviving a Dorset landmark – one with nearly a century of stories and history behind it.

Located in the picturesque village of Osmington on the edge of the iconic Jurassic Coast, The Sunray has undergone a remarkable transformation, and they needed a new website to reflect this. The historic pub and its neighbouring luxury holiday cottages have been carefully restored, creating a unique destination where guests can eat, drink and stay in one of Dorset’s most beautiful coastal locations.

Our role was to design a website that would capture this vision and bring it to life digitally and rather than forcing a template or rigid structure, we worked closely with the client to understand:

• the story of the pub

• the positioning of the cottages

• the type of guests they wanted to attract

• how visitors should feel when they arrive on the website

The result is a site that feels calm, aspirational and welcoming, mirroring the experience guests will have when they visit in person.

You can explore the finished website here: sunrayosmington.com

The post Bringing The Sunray in Osmington back to life online appeared first on MiHiDigital.

From hidden coastal coves and ancient moorland landscapes to historic cities and local favourites, Select South West Tours creates personalised journeys that go far beyond traditional sightseeing, putting storytelling and local insight at the heart of every experience.

A Passion for the South West

Founded by local expert James Coulton, who grew up in South Devon with strong roots in Cornwall, Select South West Tours was created from a genuine love for the region and a desire to share it with curious travellers. Every tour reflects this passion — whether uncovering lesser-known locations, travelling in comfort, or enjoying a relaxed stop for cream tea along the way.

Bespoke Tours, Designed Around You

No two journeys are the same. Select South West Tours crafts each itinerary around the interests, pace and preferences of their guests. From dramatic coastal routes and cultural highlights to themed experiences like Poldark filming locations or extended deluxe tours of the South West, every detail is thoughtfully planned.

Award-Winning Experiences

With over 250 five-star reviews, Select South West Tours has earned an outstanding reputation for its personalised approach and expert guiding. Guests consistently praise the depth of knowledge, flexibility and warmth that turn each tour into a truly memorable experience.

A Website to Match the Experience

We worked closely with Select South West Tours to design a new website that reflects the quality, care and individuality of their tours — creating a clean, welcoming platform that makes it easy for visitors to explore itineraries and begin planning their own bespoke journey.

If you’re looking for an unforgettable way to explore Devon, Cornwall and the wider South West, Select South West Tours offers an experience as unique as the region itself.

The post Select South West Tours: A New Website Designed for Bespoke Travel appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Matchbox Sauna came to us looking for a website that reflected their calm, welcoming vibe while making it super simple for customers to discover, book, and enjoy their sessions. The result? A clean, modern site that’s easy to navigate and looks great across all devices.

What we delivered:
-Integrated booking system: Customers can now view availability and book sessions online in just a few clicks.
-User-friendly design: An intuitive layout that makes finding information quick and stress-free.
-A fresh digital presence: A website that mirrors the unique character of Matchbox Sauna, helping them connect with their growing community.

The Result
With their new site, Matchbox Sauna can now showcase their portable sauna and make the booking process effortless for their customers. It’s all about creating a seamless online journey that ‘matches’ the relaxing experience they offer in person.

We’re proud to have partnered with Matchbox Sauna on this project, and we can’t wait to see their business continue to grow! Check out the new site here: matchboxsauna.co.uk

The post Matchbox Sauna – New Business, New Website! appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Mark spoke at the event last year, which attracted more than 300 tourism-based businesses from across the South West. This year, he will be covering the topic of  “Encouraging repeat bookers, creating advocates and building your brand for 2025″ thanks to his wealth of knowledge and experience within the industry.

The conference is geared towards helping all ranges of tourism and hospitality businesses – with topical updates, news, ideas and insights being shared each day:

• 4th February – Tourism Priorities, Excellence, Accessibility and Sustainability
• 5th February – Marketing, Digital, Social Media and AI

You can join Mark on day two of the conference (5^th February 2025) at Westpoint Arena.

Find out more and to book your place here.

The post MiHi Mark to speak at the West Country Tourism Conference 2025 appeared first on MiHiDigital.

For 2024/25, we will be sponsoring the Dog-Friendly category, which celebrates providers of truly memorable experiences for both dog owners, and their four-legged friends!

MiHi Managing Director Mark Worden said “We’re thrilled to continue supporting these awards, which highlight the leaders in the tourism and hospitality industry year after year. We’ve seen firsthand how high the standards are and every winner and finalist truly earns the recognition and praise they receive, by playing a key role in making the South West a sought-after destination, not just in the UK but worldwide. We wish all the Finalists the very best of luck!”

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on the 21st November, which will be held at the Crowne Plaza Plymouth.

The post MiHi Digital continues to support the Devon Tourism Awards for 2024/25 appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Located only 4 minutes away from the stunning Widemouth Bay in North Cornwall, Monster Slip and Slide is a four-lane 360ft-long waterslide, guaranteed to get your blood pumping with its super-fast bodyboards, inflatable doughnut rings and ultra-long water slide to ride the waves on! So when the team behind Monster Slip & Slide approached us to work alongside them, we knew this would be a fun one!

If you’re looking for a mega-fun experience for the whole family this summer, you can visit for as little as £13.50 per person per hour – or even hire out the whole thing exclusively to yourselves for an epic waterpark party! Better still, if all that slipping and sliding has got you working up an appetite, there’s the Monster Munch Team on hand to fuel you back up with plenty of tasty treats, food and drink. Head on over to their new website and discover the awesome Monster Slip & Slide for yourself, here.

The post MiHi Team up with Cornwalls most Epic Attraction – The Monster Slip & Slide appeared first on MiHiDigital.

When we were approached by Visit Exmouth to build a brand-new website, we couldn’t resist! Having worked with many tourism sites like Visit Exmoor and Discover Dartmouth – the team knew they were in safe hands.

The site was built from scratch, with a focus on local events, things to do and accommodation for all, from large groups and families, to dog owners and sporting enthusiasts. We updated the branding and created a new logo too!

Users can upload their own events through our integrated editing software and are provided with up-to-date information on special offers direct from local restaurants, shopping and accommodation businesses – as and when they arise.

Your ideal morning in Exmouth might look like an Alfresco seafront breakfast, before meandering through the winding streets with a coffee in hand – later taking the dog for a run on the beach and beyond! Perhaps you’d rather get on the water with one of the many watersport activities to choose from – ever tried paddleboarding? At night – you’ll be spoilt for choice with local gigs, live shows, and comedy nights on tap.

The site is now live, so you can check it out and plan your next visit to Exmouth here.

The post New Website Launched for Visit Exmouth appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Join us for an exciting discussion on the current state and future of tourism in the region. This in-person event will be held at Strawberry Fields Lifton, Lifton, UK. We’ll explore the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities facing the South West tourism industry.

Wanting to understand current booking and traffic trends and where you stand against them? Which legislation is coming up and how that will affect your business? How the industry is likely to evolve over the next few years? How about fire regulations, compulsory registration, and those things you’ve been wondering about but not had a chance to ask?

We’ve brought together a range of experts to answer your questions and outline where they see our region’s tourism industry going over the next few years; the challenges we are facing as well as the opportunities for your business to take advantage of.

Event Speakers / Q&A Panel:

Malcolm Bell MBE – Visit Cornwall

Sally Everton – Visit Devon

Alistair Handyside MBE – Professional Association of Self Catering (PASC)

Mark Worden – MiHi Digital

Event topics and questions

We will be covering all the major aspects of tourism within the region and there will be opportunities to ask questions in advance of the day, as well as at the event itself.

Who is the event for?

This event is suitable for all tourism businesses from across Devon and Cornwall.

You can book your tickets to attend this event here.

The post Tourism Trends Q&A with MiHi Mark: Where do we stand and what does the future hold? appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Our Managing Director Mark Worden said “We’re delighted to be able to continue our support for these awards, which shine a light on those leading the way in the tourism and hospitality marketplace. Having been involved with the awards for so many years, we know that the bar is set incredibly high; anyone who wins an award on the night deserves all of the recognition and praise they receive and are instrumental in making the South West such an attractive destination for those not only in the UK, but all over the world!”

We will be sponsoring the Visitor Information category, which fits well with our own work within the industry; we are proud to say that seven of the region’s most significant destinations now use MiHi as their web development agency.

Winners will be announced on the 16th November. Good luck to everyone involved in this year’s Devon Tourism Awards.

The post MiHi Digital continues support for the Devon Tourism Awards appeared first on MiHiDigital.

So, if you’re wondering if you’re on trend, behind or perhaps even a little ahead of the curve, here are our Managing Director’s thoughts on how the South West Tourism Sector has been shaping up in the second quarter of this year…

When are we now comparing to?

You’ll be familiar with the saying you want to be comparing ‘apples with apples’ or ‘oranges with oranges’. It’s certainly no different with website data; you want to be comparing like for like, season with season, year with year. However, Covid has obviously made that very difficult; if you compare 2021 with 2020, you’ll likely be filled with a warm fuzzy feeling. Compare 2019 with 2020 and you’re likely to be brought out in lockdown sweats.

But when should you be comparing to? Up until the start of this year, I had been a strong advocate of comparing your data back to 2019. It was the last year of ‘normality’ and a decent gauge of where you stood against that stasis. However, far too much water is now under the bridge, so it’s time to move that comparison forward and reflect on where you stand against the same period last year.

Although there are of course variances to take into consideration, we can factor those into our own thoughts and feelings on overall performance.

Let’s take a look at the average performance against last year….

Bookings are still being made late

I highlighted at the start of the year that people were making booking decisions a lot closer to the date of arrival. This trend has continued throughout the second quarter of the year, with those looking forward in their booking calendars still seeing gaps where they’d usually not. But, when looking back, thinking to themselves that performance on the whole has certainly not been as bad as they would have anticipated.

Late bookings are an obvious breeding ground for uncertainty and nervousness. However, with website traffic starting to rally, my belief is that bookings should pick up from here, although they will be made later, even as we head into the school summer holidays in some cases (read on for more on that!).

The exception to any late booking rule is repeat bookers; they will always book earlier and more regularly, so if you aren’t already putting in place methods to woo people that have already been with you, then now is the time to get moving.

Your cash flow will look better as will your booking calendar.

Website traffic has strengthened through May

The first four months of the year represented a 10 – 20% drop in traffic for most websites when compared to last year. That kind of makes sense; they’re booking later, so they won’t be looking earlier!

However, May was the first month that we saw most sites rally above their 2022 traffic levels; sometimes only marginally but some are up by 10 – 15%. These are certainly encouraging signs for those still looking to fill the months ahead and do buck the trend of lower traffic often seen on bank holidays (if you’ve forgotten, May was rammed full of them!).

Further evidence of the late booking culture is the level of traffic seen during school holidays; this is riding higher than usual and does suggest that some are looking for a holiday during the actual period of the school holiday. Very last minute indeed.

The July and August divide

Funny one this; if I tell you that people are booking later, then logic would suggest that July is booked before August. Not the case for many; several of our clients are busier in August than they are in July. If I cast the data net wider, that’s not necessarily uncommon and we’ve often seen a trend of August booking before July in the past.

However, if you’re reading this and thinking you’re the opposite, then you’re also not alone! Several of our other clients are seeing strong July performance with a more hollow August.

The only common denominator here is that there are still gaps in these school summer holiday months when there are usually not. Remember though, later bookings suggest that not all is lost here.

Deals aren’t gaining traction

We’ve seen a poor response to deals and offers. Why might that be? It’s important to remember that a deal or special offer is there to nudge someone over the line; it won’t change their mind completely. What I mean by this is that if someone is wanting to stay during July, when they can get time off work or it’s during school holidays, offering them a discount for June is not going to work. Having an offer that makes your price competitive for when they are staying will.

But what I would say there is that that is more about price than the offer itself. We’re undoubtedly in a strange pricing stage; we had Covid and the resulting period where prices went up purely because demand was so high. Since then, the input costs for you as a business have soared, so the temptation is to now rise again. That’s understandable but getting your pricing right now will mean you’ll gain more than any deal or special offer you have to resort to down the line.

Our overall feeling?

Reasonably optimistic. We’ve had a slow start to the year and all indicators are suggesting that the late booking trend will continue into the busiest part of the year. The growth in traffic during May and into June gives definite hope that demand is picking back up (although there is still too much in the way of supply on the market), so getting your pricing and proposition right now will stand you in good stead for what’s to come.

If you’re a business in the tourism industry that needs help from experts in the field, then get in touch with the team. 

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post Our Overview of the South West Tourism Sector During Q2 of 2023 appeared first on MiHiDigital.