Press release -
Sky's the limit!
‘Welcoming’, ‘beautiful’, ‘home’ or ‘fandabbydozy’ – what word best describes Scotland for you? That’s the question being posed to people across the country.
After what has been an unprecedented year for the tourism industry, an invitation has been issued to the nation to tweet their #onewordscotland.
It’s part of a campaign by leading figures in the Scottish tourism industry to create a giant word cloud and raise awareness of the importance of the tourism industry to Scotland’s wider visitor economy. Organisers hope it will act as a subtle and fun reminder that tourism in Scotland is everyone’s business.
Starting today (1 January 2015), Scots and visitors, will be invited to tweet the word they believe encapsulates what Scotland means to them. The chosen word should be followed by #onewordScotland.
Since October, when the Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing was invited to put the first word into the cloud at the Scottish Tourism Alliance October Conference, hundreds of delegates and guests from various events, including the regional Scottish Thistle Awards finals, have been submitting their suggestions. Currently ‘welcoming’ has emerged as the most popular choice.
2014 has been a unique year for Scottish tourism with confidence within the industry high. However, it is recognised by all that to really capitalise on the success of 2014 it is important to continue shouting about and promoting Scotland to the world.
Marc Crothall CEO of the Scottish Tourism Alliance said: “The world is becoming an increasingly small place and there are many more places to visit so to ensure Scotland becomes that destination of choice our collective promotional voice has to be even louder in 2015
“Following the success of 2014 there is a real feel-good factor, not just within the industry, but also among the people of Scotland. We wanted to create something that harnesses that enthusiasm and turns it into a lasting physical representation of what is so great about Scotland.
“As tourism is everyone’s business we felt it was only fitting to extend the invite to everyone across the country including those visiting for New Year .So we’re asking people to kick off 2015 by tweeting #onewordscotland with the term or description they feel perfectly sums up what Scotland means to them.”
All tweets under the #onewordscotland will be included in a word cloud set to be revealed as part of the Signature Programme held during Scottish Tourism Week 2015 on 4th March.
The #onewordscotland word cloud will be supported by VisitScotland, the Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scotland Food and Drink and the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, as well as tourism businesses and organisations across the country.
The Signature programme, includes the National Tourism Conference titled STA TV, the Scottish Thistle Awards Finals, ScotHot, the Scottish Culinary Championships, the Scottish Licenced Trade Association and Scotland Food & Drink AGM’s. The programme will see in excess of 10,000 professionals from the Scottish tourism industry descend on Glasgow to attend one or more of the six Signature events, to network and hear from influential speakers.
For more details please visit: http://scottishtourismalliance.co.uk/stw2015/
For further information contact:
Louise Purves
Corporate Press Officer
Tel: 0131 472 2052
Louise.Purves@visitscotland.com
Out of hours media enquiries: 07699 766986
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- 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 has three key roles:
- To market Scotland to all parts of the world to attract visitors
- To provide information – and inspiration – to visitors and potential visitors so they get the best out of a visit to Scotland
- To provide quality assurance to visitors and quality advice to the industry and partners to help the industry meet and strive to exceed customer expectations
- 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.
- 2014 is the year Scotland welcomes the world, when it hosts the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles and more than 800 Homecoming events throughout the country.For more information on Homecoming Scotland 2014, go to www.visitscotland.com
- The VisitScotland Information Centre network is a unique face-to-face channel engaging with around five million visitors and locals each year. Everyone who uses a VisitScotland Information Centre goes on to spend an additional £5.35, generating over £24 million for Scotland’s economy.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, tourism employs 270,000 people in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the industry 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.
- 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 tourism in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
- For more information on VisitScotland’s annual review please go to www.visitscotland.org/about_us/our_focus/annual_report.aspx
