Google partners with National Coastal Tourism Academy to offer free digital skills workshops to coastal destinations

Google partners with National Coastal Tourism Academy to offer free digital skills workshops to coastal destinations

We are excited to have partnered with Google Digital Garage - a digital skills training platform, to offer coastal businesses and communities the opportunity to access free face-to-face digital training. These training sessions have been customised for the hospitality and tourism industries, which employ 4.5m people, that’s 14% of the UK workforce.

The first of a series of coastal workshops takes place this Friday, 5 May, at Hastings Pier followed on the 12 May in Brighton. Other coastal workshops will be announced later in the year.

A recent survey found that four in five Brits admire the coast for its ‘beautiful, unspoilt beaches and coastline with lots of natural beauty” yet more than half of them have not visited the British seaside in the past three years. This signals a real opportunity for hospitality businesses and tourist centres to use the power of online tools and marketing to attract new visitors, take advantage of the recent boost in ‘staycations’ and even think about how to encourage more overseas visitors.

With access to digital skills training an issue, many popular coastal destinations are at a high risk of digital exclusion. The National Costal Tourism Academy in partnership with Google is hosting a number of training days throughout the UK, beginning this Friday at Hastings.

If you work in a visitor-facing business come along to Hastings Pier on Friday, the workshop runs from 10-5pm when a Google digital expert will be on hand to teach you what is needed to gain a competitive advantage in the ever changing digital landscape. This will be an interactive workshop, so feel free to come armed with questions.

From growing your business to expanding your digital confidence, anyone can attend and chat to one of the Google experts. You can make an appointment for a 1:1 mentoring session or masterclass at g.co/HastingsGarage.

No experience is necessary and, best of all, it’s free!