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Whether it’s the beach, the harbour or the town, the natural beauty and history of St Ives have firmly established our town as one of the most popular destinations in Cornwall. The variety of shops, quality of the restaurants and diversity of galleries together with world-class beaches make St Ives truly unique.

www.stives-cornwall.co.uk is the main Town Website and a one-stop shop for everything St. Ives!!!

Overview

St Ives Tourism Association (SITA) and St Ives Business Improvement District (BID) have joined forces to provide a united online and physical marketing presence for the town. This revamped website leverages the already high Google ranking of the existing SITA website but now adds additional exposure through the BID and offers quality representation for the towns accommodation and businesses.

Marketing Information

St Ives has the second highest visitor-related spend in the UK, topping £85m per annum.
The town has 540,000 day trippers and 220,000 staying visitors every year.
Overseas visitors bring in about £10m to the area whilst UK visitors account for £57m.
Tourism accounts for around 2,800 jobs in the area (including part-time and seasonal work).
Our aim is to provide the town with a high quality and sustainable marketing vehicle and to reach out to new customers with an excellent and professional online presence.
The partnership between BID and SITA is designed to maximise data sharing and minimise confusion in the mind of the consumer and streamline the flow of traffic to a single town website.

Who is it for?

The website is for visitors to St Ives, to help them plan their trip and decide what to do once they are here. But most importantly it is also for you, the accommodation providers and business owners in the town.

The website includes:

  • Thematic content
  • A user-friendly itinerary planner
  • Up-to-date events calendar
  • Accommodation listings and search
  • Listings for businesses
  • Social media promotion
  • Data sustainability
  • Agreed marketing objectives

Why Join Us?

  • You will receive a 12-month listing on the number one website for St Ives (Jan 1st to Dec 31st).
  • The website will inspire customers researching their holidays to get the most out of their visit as well as organising their days with our simple itinerary planner.
  • Preferential involvement with our PR activity, social media and promotions.
  • Fully-responsive site across mobile, tablet and desktop thus attracting the full profile of users.
  • Opportunity to grow your accommodation business with commission free online booking. The website is fully integrated with Freetobook.
  • Shared data between SITA and BID to build a comprehensive picture of what is happening in St Ives.
  • Access to shared initiatives between SITA and BID.

How do I join?

Accommodation

Existing SITA members, as well as new members pay an annual joining fee, which brings with it a whole host of perks including access to the new DISC crime reporting App and the St Ives Gift Card.

Unlike other major accommodation websites, there is absolutely no commission charged when clients book their accommodation through our website using the Freetobook booking engine, which is also free for the provider to install, giving a typical saving of 15% per booking compared with the big Online Travel Agencies.

SITA and BID will continue to promote St Ives across social media and other PR and marketing channels.

Businesses

BID levy payers will receive an automatic standard listing for their business as part of their BID subscription at no extra cost. If you have a business but are not a BID levy payer, you will need to join St Ives BID as a voluntary member to receive a listing.
Additional advertising space in the form of website banners is available within the site at an additional cost.

Advertising

You may have already started to notice the changes on this website as we have been quietly working away in the background to improve the visitor experience. Over the coming months the improvements will continue with new content and marketing added to the site.

We hope to make the St. Ives main website a ‘one stop shop’ to book accommodation, check out local businesses, find out what’s happening in and around St. Ives, view a calendar of events, read blogs end much more.

For the first time ever there will be marketing in the form of website banners available on this site for your business!

  • How many banners are available? – Limited to a maximum of 20 in the first year
  • How will the banners be displayed? – 3 on the landing page and others spread out across the most visited pages
  • Who can advertise? – SITA members and BID Levy payers.
  • Who will see my banner? – Anyone who visits the site will see a rotation of the banners with every refresh therefore all businesses that advertise get a fair share of the priority spots e.g. top banner on the landing page. With such a limited number of banners available this means your advert can be seen in prominent spots across the website and will link to your own website.

Example – If we take the lowest number of page visits since 2017 which is 425 visits per day and there are 20 adverts on rotation this means that your advert could be seen 21 times in one day (425 divided by 20 = 21 times). If we take the highest number of page visits per day your advert could be seen 201 times in one day (4031 divided by 20 = 201) We also envisage the number of visits to the page to grow throughout 2023 and beyond due to the revamp of the website and associated PR and Marketing.

How much does it cost?

Advertising banners will run April to April

Banners £1250 per banner per year (limited to a maximum of 20 in the first year)

If you have your own banners already we can get them straight onto the website.

Spec – size 1220 x 200 –   it can be jpg png or gif and must not exceed 200kb (will display as 610 x 100 – full-screen width on a mobile device – 60% of all views are on a mobile).

Alternatively in terms of production, if you don’t have your own banner Meor Design can make the banners at £225 per banner with all content supplied by the client, ie images, text and a brief. The client will also need to supply the URL to link the banner to the client’s website.

If you are unsure if existing artwork will work please contact us for more information info@stivesbid.co.uk

*A MAXIMUM OF 20 BANNERS ARE AVAILABLE AND THEY WILL BE ALLOCATED ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS*

Vision

We want to ensure that St Ives remains one of the top tourist destinations in the UK. Every accommodation provider and business contributes to our success as a town and by joining you too can become part of our SITA and BID community network.

First Steps

To get your website page looking its absolute best, we will talk you through what we will need from you:

  • Up to 6 pictures in a gallery
  • Unlimited text and description
  • Direct website, Freetobook, social media & email links
  • Directions, facilities, prices & opening times
  • Videos, special offers & online updating

Get in touch

Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Email: info@stivesbid.co.uk

SITA and BID are both not-for-profit organisations. The website has been created in St Ives by local people; much of the background work done on this project is voluntary. All membership fees received are either reinvested in the website and/or St Ives events and contribute to keeping the town looking its best.

Apply for membership