Our history
Visit Cornwall became a Community Interest Company (CIC) in April 2015. From being a service of Cornwall Council since our conception in the 1970’s, it was a monumental move. A move that has enabled us to harness the wealth of expertise, experience and resources afforded to us by the Council over the past 40+ years and become part of the private sector.
With Cornwall Council’s legacy as our foundation, Visit Cornwall CIC is now in the rightful position of being run by the tourism industry, for the touirsm industry.
1970 First Cornwall & Isles of Scilly holiday guide produced
1975 Cornwall Tourist Board established as a partnership between the industry and the Local and National Government
1999 First destination Cornwall website launched cornwalltouristboard.co.uk
1999 Annual visitor numbers to Cornwall smash 4.5 million representing growth by almost 1/3 in the last decade
2005 Cornwall Tourist Board rebranded to Visit Cornwall
2010 Malcolm Bell appointed as Head of Visit Cornwall bringing with him over 30 years of tourism experience
2010 Visit Cornwall Partnership comprising of key public and private sector tourism representatives is formed to advise and steer Visit Cornwall activity
2012 Visit Cornwall delivers the start of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay generating in excess of £5m worth of media coverage and reaching up to a billion people worldwide
2012 Lord St Levan becomes Chair of the Visit Cornwall Partnership. James is the tweifth generation of the St Aubyn family who have occupied St Michael's Mount since the 17th Century
2014 Visit Cornwall is the main delivery partner for the Falmouth Tall Ships Regatta which provides an economic boost of £20.9 million
2015 March Cornwall Council withdraws funding from Visit Cornwall
2015 April Visit Cornwall CIC is born
2015 November Cornwall named UK Favourite Holiday Destination for the seventh consecutive year in the British Travel Awards