Press release -
Stirling means business
Following this week’s launch of Virgin Trains’ direct service between London and Stirling, Scotland’s ancient capital has today received a further tourism boost with a £15,500 grant from the VisitScotland Growth Fund.
Local marketing group Destination Stirling has been given the money to match-fund a year-long campaign to increase the city’s profile in the business tourism sector.
The £31,000 marketing push, which also includes cash from Stirling Council, aims to attract an additional 3,000 overnight business tourism visitors over the next year, generating an additional spend of £780,000.
Targeting the UK’s MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) market, the money will be used for various marketing activity, including creating promotional literature, attending trade events and funding press and familiarisation trips to the city.
To help attract more business events, Destination Stirling will be working closely with VisitScotland’s Business Events team, Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) and Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB).
At the centre of the campaign is the message that the Stirling region can host all manner of corporate events, with recently refurbished University of Stirling accommodation, other accommodation providers such as Dunblane Hydro and Stirling Court Hotel and unique venues such as Stirling Castle cited as key attractions for the business tourism market.
Destination Stirling will also launch national social media campaigns aimed at raising the profile of the city’s business tourism offering.
Liz Buchanan, Regional Director at VisitScotland, said: “Stirling has a huge amount to offer the business tourism industry. Not only is it a beautiful city with a rich history, but it also boasts excellent facilities and an increased accommodation capacity. We are delighted to award this money to Destination Stirling through the VisitScotland Growth and look forward to seeing the city raise its profile as a business tourism destination over the course of this campaign.”
Geoff Morrison, Destination Manager at Destination Stirling, said: “Stirling is a deeply historic, vibrant and ideally situated Scottish city. Significant investment in our bedroom stock and venue portfolio in recent years has increased our profile and capacity to deliver truly exceptional events. The success of our VisitScotland Growth Fund application provides a significant opportunity to drive awareness across our key markets as part of our wider Business Tourism strategy.”
The VisitScotland Growth Fund is open to groups of three or more businesses and can support well planned, inspiring and new marketing campaigns.
For more information on the VisitScotland Growth Fund, go to www.visitscotland.org/growthfund
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
- growth fund
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
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- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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
