The number one tourism website for Cornwall, visitcornwall.com, has been treated to a refresh for 2016. It now showcases a shiny new look, improved navigation and even more information to make planning a holiday to Cornwall easier and more enjoyable than ever before.

The centrepiece of the refreshed website, which is run by Visit Cornwall the lead body for destination marketing, is a stunning homepage with sweeping aerial footage of Cornwall to offer a short but impactful overview of the county’s highlights.

But the new and improved site doesn’t just look pretty. It has been built using mobile first technology to offer a quality user experience across desktop, mobile and tablet and in a bid to improve profitability for tourism businesses whilst giving visitors a better deal, it shouts the "book direct" message loud and clear. Incentives such as discounts or complimentary room upgrades available to customers that book direct rather than through an online travel agent are promoted across the where to stay section and Visit Cornwall says this is proving popular among both visitors and tourism businesses.

“High commission rates charged by online travel agents are one of the biggest challenges facing tourism businesses," said Malcolm Bell, chief executive of Visit Cornwall. "By encouraging visitors to book direct we can keep profits with accommodation businesses and support the Cornish visitor economy.

“Every improvement that has been made to the website has been born from extensive user experience research. Working with usability experts we have refined the navigation and design to reflect customer preferences and as a result expect to attract more quality visits to the website and increase referrals to our tourism business members.”

Lord St Levan, chair of Visit Cornwall,added: “The re-launch of visitcornwall.com is a significant milestone for Visit Cornwall in its first year since becoming a Community Interest Company. It is recognised as being the official online visitor guide to Cornwall and is both ours, and Cornwall’s, greatest marketing asset. In its new format visitcornwall.com is in a stronger position that ever before to appeal to regular and new visitors to Cornwall whilst providing tourism businesses with an unrivalled marketing tool.”

The refreshed website went live in mid-December to capitalise on rise in Internet use over the festive break and the New Year tradition to start planning for the year ahead.

“Visitcornwall.com attracted over 3.8 million visits in 2015 smashing our record set last year by 20 per cent,” said Mr Bell. “We have ambitions to increase this by a further 20 per cent in 2016. The website will continue to develop over the next 12 months with full digital marketing, PR and advertising support and by Easter we plan to launch the next phase with a last-minute availability section.”

Over 950 businesses are currently members of Visit Cornwall and benefit from a listing on its website.