Tourism Summit Agenda - Day Two

Stuart joined Isles of Scilly Steamship Group as Chief Financial Officer in July 2013 and appointed as Chief Executive Officer in 2019. Originally from Cornwall, Stuart graduated from Cardiff University with a BSc (Hons) degree in Pharmacology & Toxicology and qualifi­ed as a Chartered Accountant in 2007. Stuart previously worked at Smart Solutions Recruitment, one of Wales fastest growing companies.

Stuart is a non-executive director of the Island Partnership, a not-for-profit organisation which exists to develop the Isles of Scilly as a visitor destination. He is also a member of the Isles of Scilly Transport Board. In his spare time, Stuart is a keen cyclist and triathlete competing over multiple distances and enjoys spending time with his family at home in Cornwall.

Thomas is a partner and the team leader of the Intellectual Property, Data Protection and Technology team at Stephens Scown. He has over 7 years experience of working in intellectual property and information technology, and qualified as a solicitor in 2016.

Thomas works predominantly with national and international businesses. He also heads up the firms’ food and drink team, and has experience of working with a broad range of food and drink businesses, advising on their brand portfolios and consumer facing terms. Thomas is a director of nuBright, a joint venture business offering data protection and cyber security assistance.

Chris leads the vision and strategy for low-carbon travel demand management platform, ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ (“YST”). After 7-years in telecoms, Chris weaved in his Commercial Music BA and founded Digital Animal, a direct-to-consumer retail platform for major-label recording artists that powered loyalty campaigns for brands including NatWest and Nintendo. DA won 4 UKTI Creative Industries Awards in 3 consecutive years and Chris was shortlisted for the O2 Arena Entrepreneur of The Year award. He’s held responsibility D2C strategy for PIAS, Europe’s largest independent entertainment distributor, and prior to establishing YST helped engineer customer engagement campaigns for JLR, Halfords, ATOS, Google and Vodafone.


Rob is a retired digital marketer and analytics consultant, Board member and non-executive director of Visit Cornwall. He spent 17 years in Cornwall working within tourism and e-commerce, having established Niddocks in 2003. Rob offers expertise in the fields of Analytics, Google Tag Manager, API development, and general digital consultancy.

Now, Rob lives in the Highlands of Scotland with his wife Andrea, three dogs and cat running a short term holiday let, making withy lobster pots and fishing the sea lochs around Skye and Lochalsh!

Bethany is the Growth Operations Manager of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Growth Hub, an independent and impartial team of business experts on hand to enable organisations to find solutions to their training and development needs. Cornish born and bred, Bethany has a passion for retaining and growing the county’s talent pool while supporting companies to grow and remain competitive. Bethany has over 10 years’ experience in the business and skills landscape and has a customer centric approach. In her previous roles, Bethany delivered workforce training and apprenticeship contracts as well as working on projects which supported people facing redundancy or looking to return to work. Her specialisms include in-depth knowledge of workforce training opportunities, future planning for teams and business development.

Robin Tjolle is a Tourism and Destination Management specialist with over 30 years’ experience. Robin has held high-profile roles, including Chief Executive of Shakespeare's England and Cotswolds Tourism, and as an international travel trade representative for the Midlands, promoting destinations in North America and the Asia Pacific regions.

Currently, as VisitEngland’s Regional Development Lead for the South West, Robin has trained over 2,500 businesses through the "Taking England to the World" programme, helping them achieve success in international markets.

With over 30 years’ experience in the tourism and hospitality industry, Abi brings a wealth of knowledge to her role as Tourism Manager at Visit Cornwall. Abi has played a pivotal role in strengthening Cornwall’s relationships and profile with the travel trade, and both national and international press. Abi also works closely with the overseas VisitBritain offices to enhance Cornwall’s relationships with key international markets while engaging with emerging markets that are increasingly interested in Cornwall.

Kevin Millington has developed an international reputation for tracking tourism in destinations and measuring its economic, social and environmental impacts.

He spotted the need for destinations to have a tool specifically for tracking their tourism sectors, and subsequently set up T-Stats, an online system for destinations to measure what is happening in their cities, regions and countries.

The system, operated by his company T-Stats Solutions Limited, is used by destinations across the UK and overseas. Over the last 18 months he has been involved in setting up the South West Visitor Economy Hub for Devon and Somerset and the new T-Stats system for Visit Cornwall.

Nick Hall is a globally recognised authority on digital transformation in the tourism industry. With over two decades of experience in destination marketing, digital trends and innovation, he is the founder of the Digital Tourism Think Tank (DTTT), a leading platform fostering collaboration and innovation among tourism professionals worldwide.

He heads up a one of a kind consultancy, developing innovation processes, visionary strategies and transformation projects. He also developed a globally leading platform and membership programme transcending Destinations, Industry and Academia. Nick has also developed numerous groundbreaking events, such as X. Festival, Future. Destination. Brand. And X. Design Week, as well as speaking at hundreds of leading industry events across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Jon Hyatt – Chair Visit Cornwall CIC, Managing Director at Hendra Holiday Park

Mike Steel – Managing Director, Visit Cornwall

Rob Edlin – Non-Exec Director Visit Cornwall, Analytics Consultant

Linda Winstanley – Non-Exec Director Visit Cornwall, Chair of Bude Area Tourist Board

Mark Worden – Non-Exec Director Visit Cornwall, Director at MiHi Digital

Nicola Cornish – Non-Exec Director Visit Cornwall, Audit and assurance partner at PKF-Francis Clark

Kim Spencer – Non-Exec Director Visit Cornwall, Vice Chair SECTA

Trevor Broome – Non-Exec Director Visit Cornwall, General Manager at Land's End Landmark

Sarah Ferrie – Non-Exec Director Visit Cornwall, Head of Marketing, Budock Vean

Nathan Cudmore - Non Exec Director Visit Cornwall, Sector Development Manager at Cornwall & Ises of Scilly Good Growth Programme.

Malcolm Bell – LVEP development lead, Visit Cornwall CIC