The new big-budget Visit Dorset promotional video has recently been released (see it on the next page), and no doubt sent far and wide to media outlets and influencers in the hope of drawing more visitors to the county. So far, so normal – that is, after all, Visit Dorset’s one job. I happen to work in marketing, so of course I had a professional nosey.
So far the video has had 375,000 views on YouTube. Good job, Visit Dorset! The film is 57 seconds long. It’s beautifully shot, glossy, professionally edited – and it tells you everything you need to know about how Dorset is still being sold to the world.
Clifftops. Beaches. Sea kayaks. Sailing boats. Coastal paths. Big skies over water … Dorset, apparently, begins and ends at the shoreline.
More than a fossil coast
If you blink, you might catch a fleeting glimpse of Sherborne Abbey’s ceiling – two seconds, perhaps – followed by a few seconds of a pretty independent shop and a bakery or café. You’d only know the shop was in Sherborne if you already knew. It could be anywhere.
I still don’t know where the bakery is – but I’m fairly sure it’s not Oxford’s, Dorset’s 200-year-old family bakery that still uses 100-year-old ovens and a 75-year-old dough mixer, the last of its kind in the world. Because why would a PR firm think that was worth shouting about?
After that, it’s back to the coast. Right up until the closing titles, which roll over the only genuinely rural moment in the entire film: a man running after his dog across a stubble field amid farmland.
That’s it. Rural Dorset, reduced to a backdrop for the final credits.
This all matters so much more than you think.
Dorset is not a narrow coastal strip with a bit of countryside tacked on behind it.
Roughly three quarters of the county is rural. Its market towns, villages, farms, hills, footpaths, forests and historic sites are not ‘niche extras’ – they are the place.
And yet, once again, they are barely visible.
I understand the tagline is ‘for a world less travelled’, which may explain the absence of Durdle Door and Gold Hill. But it doesn’t explain the absence of everything else. There are no hillforts. No deep woodland walks. No chalk downland. No ancient tracks and holloways, hidden valleys, ancient parish churches, Georgian market town high streets or even the thatched villages that people already travel hundreds of miles to see.
And certainly nothing so dull as Dorset’s enormous creative and arts sector, including Dorset Art Weeks, one of the largest open studio events in the UK which attracts tens of thousands of visitors.
So none of the things that make inland Dorset not just attractive, but accessible.
Shouting from the sidelines
Why are we making Dorset look so privileged?
How, exactly, is taking the family sailing more aspirational and accessible to most UK households than a walk across a hillfort? Sailing and kayaking require money, kit, confidence, good weather and – crucially – prior experience. Walking requires shoes and a sandwich. Yet the former are endlessly promoted as Dorset’s calling card, while the latter is treated as a footnote, if it’s acknowledged at all.
This isn’t about knocking the coast – Dorset’s coastline is rightly celebrated. It is spectacular, and it underpins a vital part of the county’s tourism economy.
But it is not the county’s whole story. And pretending that it is comes at a real cost. Every time Dorset is marketed as a coastal playground, the rural economy is sidelined. Independent pubs, B&Bs, walking guides, farm attractions, food producers, market towns and countless small inland businesses are left fighting for scraps of attention – despite offering experiences that are often cheaper, greener and more realistic for families and older visitors alike.
The video just has the feel of being written by people who don’t actually live here. The PR agency behind it is based in Exeter, which may be defensible on paper, but it raises an awkward question: if you don’t live here, do you really understand what it is that you are missing?
Local knowledge isn’t parochialism. It’s perspective.
And a little more of it would have gone a long way here.
Dorset’s persistent over-reliance on coastal imagery suggests a strategic blind spot that’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Tourism marketing is not just about attracting visitors – it’s about directing them. And for Visit Dorset, that’s about spreading footfall, spend and opportunity across a whole county, not simply funnelling it repeatedly to the same already-
pressured places.
Dorset deserves better than being reduced to a postcard of itself. Rural Dorset, in particular, deserves to be seen. When this is how the county is promoted, it’s no wonder so much of it feels invisible. You can’t keep selling Dorset as a playground for the already well-off and then wonder why its rural economy struggles to survive.
***The Grumbler – the open opinion column in The BV. It’s a space for anyone to share their thoughts freely. While the editor will need to know the identity of contributors, all pieces will be published anonymously. With just a few basic guidelines to ensure legality, safety and respect, this is an open forum for honest and unfiltered views. Got something you need to get off your chest? Send it to [email protected]. The Grumbler column is here for you: go on, say it. We dare you.***
