Tavistock centre is planning to become ‘digitally smart’ in order to help boost the town’s economy.

The town’s businesses discussed the idea of introducing a public wi-fi network to enable wider access to the Visit Tavistock website and other online information by visitors.

Last week’s annual meeting of Tavistock’s Business Improvement District (BID) at the Bedford Hotel was told other towns had similar networks which not only allowed more shoppers to see the choice of businesses online, but enabled them to compile and use intelligence on their habits.

The meeting of BID members was also told about the success of the Visit Tavistock campaign promotions such as the trail leaflets, the Tavistock gift card and events in partnership with Tavistock, West Devon Borough and Devon County councils. A major event was planned to mark the Coronation of King Charles III.

Tavistock does not have full mobile connection, with some blackspots for many network providers, it is hoped a public network will solve this.

Chris Palmer, chairman of BID told the meeting the wi-fi project was crucial to the BID’s marketing strategy, by providing intelligence on customers and allowing businesses to more efficiently target advertising and other promotions online and offline and attract repeat visits.

Chris said; ‘We are hoping to become a digitally smart town as far as promoting Tavistock as a visitor destination. Other towns have successful networks. We hope to direct people to our Visit Tavistock website and use the data collected this way to understand what visitors want, what they are looking for and where they come from and to have some figures on footfall, which we don’t have now.

‘This data can provide intelligence we can use to target our marketing promotions more effectively.’

He explained this would involve pushing notifications to known visitors, with their details derived from log-in details and send out Visit Tavistock promotional details using visitor internet browsing histories.

He said a technical survey was being carried out to see how feasible it was to provide a public network. The issue of siting of antennae and masts on listed historic buildings would have to be taken into account. When working out how cost-effective a wi-fi network provision would be, the costs of maintainance would be balanced against the potential benefits.

Janna Sanders, BID manager, said there were black holes in the mobile internet coverage which a public network would plug and help profile visitors and provide better visitor numbers than were now available.

Chris said: ‘The overall picture of Tavistock business was that it was an innovative and resilient community with traders providing lots of useful ideas for mutual benefit. The town had a diverse high street with superb offering of small local businesses, which was thriving despite economic challenges.’