Press release -
Making tasty tracks
The food and drink on one of Scotland’s most iconic train journeys has received VisitScotland’s Taste Our Best award in recognition of its use of quality Scottish produce.
Caledonian Sleeper, operated by Serco since April 2015, has been awarded the accreditation by the national tourism organisation for the quality and provenance of the on board food and drink experience.
Operating between London and Scotland six nights each week, Caledonian Sleeper was commended for its menu which boasts some of the best produce from across Scotland, including Highland brie, Ayrshire bacon and Caithness shortbread.
Taste Our Best, a joint initiative between VisitScotland and the Scottish Government is designed to recognise businesses including hotels, restaurants, cafes, takeaways, visitor attractions and B&Bs that not only offer a quality food and drink experience, but include and promote Scottish produce on their menus, giving consumers more choice.
The Taste Our Best scheme provides businesses with an assessment of their food provision and their menu by qualified assessors, with those meeting the necessary criteria gaining the award.
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: “Congratulations to Caledonian Sleeper on receiving its Taste Our Best Award. It is fitting that such an iconic Scottish rail journey should be accompanied by the very best in Scottish food and drink –Caledonian Sleeper certainly offers this.”
“From restaurants to Scotland’s built heritage, chippies to ferries, Taste Our Best is open to any business with a food and drink offering. With research finding that three out of four visitors think eating local cuisine will enhance their visit, Taste Our Best really is a recipe for success.”
As part of their mission to offer passengers the country’s finest fare, Caledonian Sleeper partnered with Dingwall-based producer RSF Scotland, who create a wide range of meals and snacks using ingredients from Scottish sources.
Ryan Flaherty, Guest Experience Director at Caledonian Sleeper said: “We are delighted to receive the ‘Taste Our Best’ Award for the catering service we provide to guests on board the Caledonian Sleeper.
“With the majority of items in our menu already locally-sourced, we are committed to further increasing the number of local suppliers that we work with to continue providing our guests with delicious new dishes to enjoy during their journey.
“As the provenance of our on board menu is something we take great pride in, we are particularly pleased that this award recognises our efforts in supporting the local Scottish economy.”
Research has shown that visitors are willing to pay up to 15% more for food that is of Scottish or regional origin and businesses that provide local food can typically enjoy higher level sales of up to 20% per year.
It is estimated that tourism’s contribution to Scotland’s food and drink industry is worth £2.5 million per day to country’s economy with sampling traditional dishes and local produce among the top activities undertaken by visitors to Scotland.
To find out more about the Taste Our Best scheme, visit http://www.visitscotland.org/business_support/quality_assurance/restaurants.aspx
- ENDS -
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- taste our best
- corporate communications
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- 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.
- Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP.
- The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit www.gov.scot or follow @scotgovESIF
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business events in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
- 2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology
- 2017 is the year to delve into the past and discover Scotland’s fascinating stories through a wide-ranging variety of new and existing activity to drive the nation’s tourism and events sector, boosting tourism across Scotland.
- The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology begins on 1 January 2017 and will end on 31 December 2017. It will build on the momentum generated by previous themed years in Scotland including the 2015 Year of Food and Drink, Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
- The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Creative Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.
- The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is supported by £570,000 of Scottish Government funding.
- The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
- For more information visit visitscotland.com/HHA2017 or join the conversation at #HHA2017
