Press release -
Venturing to the stars
A Highland business which offers visitors unique wildlife encounters by boat - including the renowned Moray Firth bottlenose dolphins - has achieved VisitScotland’s highest Quality Assurance grading.
EcoVentures, which operates out of Cromarty, has been awarded the national tourism organisation’s Five Star Wildlife Experience award.
The company is committed to providing visitors with the best possible experience while ensuring the long-term sustainability of its local marine environment.
The boat trips offered by EcoVentures include wildlife watching, skippered charters, film and photography charters and commercial charters. Their boat, a 9.5m RIB named Saorsa, has been designed specifically with wildlife-watching in mind and for many the boat ride alone is the biggest attraction.
In 2015 EcoVentures was awarded a Green Tourism Business Scheme Silver Award. These awards recognise and support businesses that are positively working towards being sustainable and which are both accountable and genuine in approach.
The business is also an accredited operator with the Dolphin Space Programme, a voluntary initiative set up by a number of local organisations to safeguard the welfare of cetaceans in the Moray Firth. Over the years, they have been actively involved in developing best practice guidelines for dolphin watching in this area.
Although bottlenose dolphins tend to be the most frequently encountered and well known species in the Moray Firth, other sealife and birdlife is also seen on trips. Like the dolphins some species, such as the shy harbour porpoise can be seen in the Firth all year round, others such as the pilot whale and basking shark are much more occasional visitors. Experience over the years has taught staff where and when they are most likely to encounter which species but often, as with any wild animal, it comes down to luck.
Developed and improved over the past 25 years, VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance (QA) schemes are world-leading and provide a trusted, independent and impartial source of information for visitors. They allow businesses not just to meet visitor expectations, but exceed them.
QA can open the door to new customers. It is a powerful marketing tool and works well with online review sites in using an independent perspective to measure visitor experience against tried and tested criteria, so visitors know exactly what to expect.
EcoVentures owner Sarah Pern said:
“We are absolutely delighted to receive a VisitScotland Five Star Wildlife Experience Quality Assurance Award. We were part of the very first pilot project for the Wildlife Experience Award so have been involved from the very beginning.
“We believe this Five Star award reflects our exceptional standard of customer care, attention to detail and passion for what we do. After 11 years of hard work, we are thrilled to join the elite group of businesses who reach this top grading and to put Cromarty and EcoVentures firmly on the map as one of the top wildlife watching destinations in the country.”
Scott Armstrong, VisitScotland Regional Partnerships Director, said:
“I would like to congratulate Sarah and the team at EcoVentures 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 EcoVentures 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.”
For more information, visit www.ecoventures.co.uk
For more information on VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance scheme, please visit www.visitscotland.org/quality_assurance.aspx
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
- quality assurance
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
Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016 - 2016 will shine a spotlight on Scotland’s achievements in innovation, architecture and design through a wide-ranging, variety of new and existing activity.
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design begins on 1 January 2016 and ends on 31 December 2016 and will build on the momentum generated by the 2015 Year of Food and Drink as well as previous years including Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
- Through a series of exciting events and activity, the year will showcase Scotland’s position as an “innovation nation”, its outstanding built heritage, and its thriving, internationally acclaimed creative industries sector.
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, Architecture + Design Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
- Join the conversation at #IAD2016
- Events can join the 2016 Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design Partner Programme throughout the year by visiting http://www.eventscotland.org/YIAD_partner_programme
