Tourism websites: Form or Function?

I'm getting fed-up with local tourism websites.  I'm updating ours (www.dowfoldhouse.co.uk) and TRYING to put links to local areas of interest on it.  So, I visit Auckland Castle website (http://aucklandcastle.org/).

It's a VERY pretty site, with opportunities for me to get wed there - too, late, the damage is done - and a couple of others, none of which offer ANY information about the castle, nor about why I might want to visit it.



 It's the same with Beamish (http://www.beamish.org.uk/).

Apart from the strapline: "The Living Museum of the North" - good - it goes straight into too much detail - events, news, volunteering opportunities which all assume you already know what Beamish actually IS.  Not a thing about just what it offers and what makes a visit there special.  A couple of sentences would do it.

The Bishop Auckland Food Festival suffers from this malaise as well.  I just want to promote these attractions on our own website to visitors & potential visitors, but it's really very hard...