What’s on Thanet District Council?

The annual old vehicles bucket and spade run to Ramsgate on Sunday is one of Thanet’s main events, involving hundreds of classic vehicles and thousands of spectators, when I went to write the previous post about it I tried to use the council’s website to find out some information about the event.

There is nothing on the council’s main website their homepage features the following events:

St. Laurence Churchyard Tour (June)

St Laurence Church Coffee Morning (June)

LYRA in Concert in St. Laurence Church

The Spencers of Spencer House and Althorpe.

Coastal Cycle Rides

Margate's Big Event

Fun Factory Fundraising Summer Fayre & Nearly New Sale

Air Show - Margate Big Event

Thanet Disability Awareness Roadshow

St. Laurence Churchyard Tour (July)

The council run tourism site http://www.visitthanet.co.uk/ doesn’t highlight this major event, although you can find it on this website if you know you are looking for it, from their homepage click on “Whats On” (link near the top of the page). Then click on “Events” link near the bottom of the page over a thumbnail picture of what looks like Broadstairs Bandstand. Then work through the pages using the arrow near the bottom right of the page.

I failed to find the information I wanted to know there so I rang the Droit House Visitor information centre in Margate, the number is on the http://www.visitthanet.co.uk/ website 01843 577577 and was answered by a machine that told me to press 3 for information about forthcoming events. I did this and it took me to a recorded voice loop telling me to look on the website.

A problem here is that the average person looking for something to do at the weekend in Thanet will probably put something like “whats on in Thanet” into Google which leads them to the councils two websites.

The next problem is about how much trouble a potential tourist thinking about coming to Thanet this weekend would be prepared to go to, not as much I went to I expect.

Make no mistake here we, the local council taxpayers, pay for a tourist information service whether it works properly or badly, so I consider the only option is to try and to get it to work properly, particularly the online aspect. Increasingly people use the internet to decide what to do and so their experience needs to fast and seamless.

This particularly relates to the number of links they have to click on before they give up, go to another area and spend their money there.  


Finally I used the bludgeon approach to the tourist information hotline, which was to press 1 until I spoke to a human being, who turned out to be both charming and helpful. 

There is of course Ramsgate Tourist Information Office in the Custom House, so I tried putting “Ramsgate Tourist Information office” into Google, this essentially takes you to Margate Tourist Information Office.

I finally managed to find the phone number for Ramsgate Visitor Information the one in the Custom House by phoning up the town council, any tourists reading this should note the phone number is 01843 598750. 

I will add to this one as I get time.