Large Visitor Attraction of the Year

Philippa, Jake, Lauren, Dan, Will, Amanda, Dave and Donna were delighted to attend the Devon Tourism Awards at Sandypark in Exeter on Thursday 27th November, 2025.

Stuart Line Cruises were selected as finalists in the category of ‘Large Visitor Attraction of the Year’, so we donned our glad rags and got excited for a night away from boats with some of the Crew! We consider ourselves to be a small family business and so to be in this category felt a little daunting but a real ‘pinch me’ moment, too. Further to this, Devon is such a vast county with an abundance of incredibly high-quality Visitor Attractions and it felt truly humbling to be considered one of Devon’s finest businesses and to be in a room with the crème de la crème of the county!

When we arrived at Sandypark for the drinks reception – glass of prosecco in hand – we immediately saw several familiar faces and it was great to catch up with industry colleagues, old and new. In particular, it was fantastic to chat to Sally from Visit Devon, Anne from Devon’s Top Attractions and Robin Tjolle, from Visit England. Sally and Anne are close colleagues and friends of ours and support our business in more ways than I can possibly list in this blog post. They are true champions for our region and we are incredibly grateful to both of them for all that they do for tourism in Devon – tourism in Devon simply would not be what it is without them.

Robin represents Visit England and is the South West Regional Development Lead – we actually had the great pleasure of welcoming him aboard for a River Exe Cruise back in April 2024, to celebrate Devon’s newly awarded LVEP (Local Visitor Economy Partnership), alongside Andrew Stokes (CEO of Visit England), Vince Flower (Chair of Visit Devon) and Lady Victoria Borwick (Chair of Visit England) – it was great to catch up with Robin once again over a glass of fizz and to listen to some of his insights into the current landscape for domestic and international tourism to our region.

We were truly delighted when Stuart Line Cruises was called up to receive an award and to come away with the Bronze award in this category feels like a huge achievement – not only for our business but for Exmouth as well. We have always felt passionately that the key to our success is the success of those around us too – fellow businesses within and around Exmouth, including accommodation providers, thrive from our business and vice versa – we are all stronger together and it is more important than ever for us all to remember this and continue to work closely together, giving more reason for people to visit our region.