Press release -
Cruising ahead!
A Highland boat tour business which has seen its passenger numbers increase by 15% this year has scooped the highest Quality Assurance (QA) accolade from VisitScotland.
The national tourism organisation has presented Cruise Loch Ness, based at Fort Augustus, with its Five Star Tour Quality Assurance Award in recognition of its exceptional standards.
There are a total of 21 five star tours in Scotland and of these, five are in the Highlands, including Cruise Loch Ness. The coveted VisitScotland five star grading ensures that all areas of an attraction, tour or activity centre show an exceptional level of quality and service.
In order to achieve this award, VisitScotland’s Quality and Tourism Advisor carries out an incognito visit to the attraction. This involves experiencing the whole tour, which includes reviewing the website, booking procedure, hospitality and friendliness of the staff and the actual interpretation and presentation of the tour.
Cruise Loch Ness has a 45-year history of cruising the world famous Loch Ness and offering daily boat trips and cruises throughout the year from Fort Augustus, at the southern end of the Loch. They also now have RIB trips operating from Dochgarroch, Inverness and operate two open RIBs and one luxury cabin RIB from Fort Augustus.
The company caters for those looking for a tranquil cruise taking in the spectacular Scottish scenery aboard the Royal Scot & Legend of Loch Ness, a more exhilarating power boat trip on rigid inflatable boats (RIBs), or those wishing to hire one of their fleet for a special occasion - whilst looking for Nessie, the infamous Loch Ness Monster.
The daily and evening Loch Ness cruises include live commentary which takes passengers on a journey through the local history, nature and local folklore of Loch Ness, including a presentation of the onboard hi tech Sonar equipment, allowing them to peer into the depths to see if they can spot Nessie.
Ronald Mackenzie, Managing Director of Cruise Loch Ness, said:
“What better way to round off an already fantastic season than with the news that we’ve finally earned our VisitScotland 5 Star rating? It’s been an accolade in our sights for a number of years now, so it feels wonderful to finally have that recognition.
“Passenger numbers are at all-time high, with an increase of 15% on last year, so this award really verifies what an amazing team we have at Cruise Loch Ness."
Scott Armstrong, VisitScotland Regional Director, said:
“I would like to congratulate Ronald and the team at Cruise Loch Ness for their well-deserved achievement. They are providing a world-class visitor experience, which is reflected in their five-star award.
“I hope the success of Cruise Loch Ness sets an example to other businesses to join the scheme, which benefits tourism businesses and visitors alike. It is vital that everyone involved in tourism works together to offer visitors a fantastic experience when visiting and staying in the Highlands, to strengthen our tourism offering.
“Our Quality Assurance scheme helps businesses to reach their full potential and truly shine. The scheme is about more than just the ‘stars’ on the door - it’s about the entire visitor experience, about investing in your business and making it as economically sustainable as it can possibly be.”
Developed and improved over the past 25 years, VisitScotland’s QA schemes are world leading and provide a trusted, independent and impartial source of information for visitors. They allow businesses to not just meet visitor expectations - but exceed them.
The QA schemes are delivered by a dedicated team of experts who offer valuable business advice and can help signpost to other sources of support.
For more information, visit www.cruiselochness.com
Caption: The Cruise Loch Ness team are pictured celebrating their VisitScotland Quality Assurance 5* award.
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
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- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
- This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
- Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
- Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
- Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
- Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
- Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
- Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
- Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, the tourism economy supports 270,000 jobs in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the tourism economy contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
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Year of Food and Drink 2015- 2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’s natural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping our economic success.
- Scotland generates over £2.5m per day through food and drink tourism.
- A series of themed months will create an appetite for key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafood and whisky to berries and high-quality meat
- For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/tastescotland
