Brixham, Devon now featuring on Mapzest - the digital tourism App

Visitors to the popular seaside Torbay resort of Brixham can now easily discover upcoming events, activities, sights and places to visit throughout and prior to their visit using Mapzest, the digital tourism app.

Fishcombe Cove Cafe Bar’s listing on Mapzest where they’ve posted their upcoming events to raise awareness with visitors to the town

Events and business listings

Local businesses have created listings to showcase their shops, pubs, restaurants and guesthouses to help raise awareness and drive footfall. Locations that hold events have listed the details which show the user a detailed guide of what is taking place at a granular level. We are talking pub quizzes, local bands in local pubs, wellness events, basically anything that visitors to Brixham could benefit from.

Visitors to Brixham can lookup where to watch the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 final

Where to watch the UEFA Women’s Euro Final 2025 using Mapzest

As expected, there are lot of visitors unfamiliar with the area who are looking to watch the Lionesses take on Spain in the UEFA Women’s Euro final. Pubs and venues showing the match have created events on Mapzest to help visitors plan their day.

Mañana, a craft beer bar new to Brixham, created a Pre-Match breakfast and craft beer combo deal, to set supporters up for the day.

The Manor, Brixham’s oldest pub (possibly), listed their afternoon schedule comprising Pizza’s from 4pm by Grove Woods Pizza, football, then topped off by the amazing Dew Barf band.

Both taking advantage of a new platform to promote to visitors.

How does Mapzest differ to social platform’s for advertising?

Social platforms such as Instagram and Facebook work when marketing to local’s who follow the various pages, but tourists are often unaware of the businesses and venues and therefore unaware of their social channels. This is where Mapzest comes in, the tourist selects the map for their destination (in this case Brixham) and has instant access to all venues and events that have been created.

Local’s are also making use of the app, especially for easy access to local entertainment which can often be a little messy to track using other platforms.

Business uptake

We’re pleased with the uptake so far and the platform continues to grow. If you are a business that provides a service to Brixham and are not yet listed on Mapzest, get in touch here! We’d love to hear from you.

The Brixham Pirate Festival 2025 choose Mapzest for their interactive festival map

The annual BPF (Brixham Pirate Festival) is a swashbuckling event that takes place in Brixham, Devon, over the Early May Bank Holiday weekend. It's a free, family-friendly festival with a mix of music, street performers, pirate re-enactments, and activities for all ages. The festival is known for its festive atmosphere, with the town filled with pirates in costume and a lively celebration of all things piratical.

BPF collaborated with Zest4 to create an interactive festival guide delivered on the Mapzest Tourism platform.

The Requirement

• Offline functionality (with around 60k pirates, signal can be testing)

• Event listings covering all music stages over the 3 days

• Listings for festival sponsors

• Listings for market traders

• Filters including Traders, Food & Drink, Events, Children Activities

• General map point of interests, e.g. toilet facilities

• Marketing campaign to accompany the guide

A map was created on Mapzest specifically for the festival. Map content was uploaded via Google Sheets, automatically creating the map listings. Each listing contained information about their stall, business or event, including call-to-actions for visiting their social channels and websites or to reserve a table. The app allowed visitors to plan ahead ensuring they were at the right stage at the right time to see their favourite artists. Visitors could browse and get directions to the various food and drink providers and gain visibility of everything that was taking place over the 3 day festival.

Screenshots of The Brixham Pirate Festival map on Mapzest

For The Trader

Mapzest provided an interactive way for traders to promote their wares and to raise awareness of their offering. With call-to-actions, a listing could have a ‘book now’ link, a ‘visit our webshop’ link or a ‘listen on Apple Music’ link to highlight a few. The map was given a pirate feel with imagery, fonts, colour scheme and category names to reflect the event.

For The Visitor

• Browse all traders

• Browse Pubs and Food venues

• View everything on a list and via a map, with distance visibility and directions

• View all events at the different stages

• Find conveniences and their way around

• Gain access to traders ecommerce stores and social channels

• Reserve tables at the various listed restaurants

• Research and plan who to see ahead of the event

• Get live updates throughout the event

• Use the app after the event as a directory for trader website, social and contact details

The Campaign

To raise awareness of the map, Zest4 provided a marketing campaign to accompany the app, producing signage complete with QR codes, delivered on-foot to venues, traders and posted around Brixham. Social channels were also used to help raise awareness.

A couple of festival pirates holding campaign signage

BPF 2025 Go-live

A quick turnaround was achieved with the majority of content being uploaded within minutes, this was helped by Mapzest’s ability to import content to quickly create listings in bulk. The job that takes the most time is collating the information of who is exhibiting and sponsoring, but usually with an event like this, the information has already been obtained so creating a map on Mapzest can be quick and simple. With Mapzest already live on the various app stores, there were no concerns trying to get app approval ahead of the festival. The BPF map became available on both iOS and Android for immediate download as soon as the map was set as published.

Zest4 are very much looking forward to working with BPF next year to deliver an even more immersive experience delivered on the Mapzest platform for the Brixham Pirate Festival 2026.

If you are looking for a tried and tested interactive guide for your festival, resort or location, that also works off-line, take a look at Mapzest and get in touch.