Press release -
A Taste for Tourism in the Highlands
The importance of Scotland’s natural larder and having a taste for tourism were amongst the themes at the Highland Tourism Conference this week.
Boasting 20% of all Taste Our Best* accreditations in Scotland, the Highlands has an impressive 194 awards, highlighting the excellence and quality of the food and drink offering in the region. Around 150 delegates from across the Highlands and Moray attended the conference, held at the Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness.
Organised by VisitScotland, the Highland Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Tourism Alliance, the event included workshops on Scotland’s Natural Larder, Making Social Media Work for You; Put a Quality Foot Forward and Make Sure your Trade is on the Up and Up.
Running alongside the conference was a food and drink supplier showcase, featuring local exhibitors including North Hop, Corner on the Square, Swansons Fruit Company, Cairngorm Brewery, Saladworx, Cobbs and the Isle of Skye Sea Salt Company.
Scott Armstrong, VisitScotland Regional Director, said:
“It has been very encouraging to see so many individuals and businesses involved in tourism at this year’s conference, all keen to work together and learn how they can attract even more visitors to this unique part of Scotland.
“Promoting Scotland’s food and drink is a recipe for success – the industry has the potential to provide significant growth for tourism. Food is an integral part of the tourism experience and this year is the opportunity to showcase local produce and provenance to our visitors more than ever before.
“Events and conferences don’t just provide entertainment, they represent a multi-million pound opportunity to boost jobs, as well as deliver cultural and social benefits.
“Without tourism, many remote communities would not be sustainable and business sectors like drinks, retail or construction would be severely impacted. Every tourism experience has the potential to become a business transaction.”
Michelle Russell, from North Hop, who took part in one of the workshops, said:
“The Highland Tourism Conference is always a great day for networking and keeping up to date with what's new in the industry, so when I was asked by VisitScotland to be one of the guest speakers, I knew it would be a great opportunity to showcase North Hop and to promote some of the high quality Scottish exhibitors we promote.
“Food and drink is a massive market for tourism just now and we are making the most of that through exciting collaborations and new products to entice folk along to our unique events and festivals.”
Craig Ewan, General Manager of the Kingsmills Hotel, which hosted the conference, said:
“We were delighted to once again host the Highland Tourism Conference, as it is a very importance event to us. There was a lot of networking going on throughout the day, with businesses keen to learn how they could work together to continue to make the Highlands a great visitor destination.”
Other speakers included Vicki Miller, Head of Customer Experience at VisitScotland, who talked about the Spirit of Scotland; David MacKenzie, from the Highland Council, who discussed Trading Standards: Working for a successful tourist industry through best practice; Becky Shaw, from Scottish Natural Heritage, who spoke about a Taste for Tourism and Marc Crothall, from the Scottish Tourism Alliance, on STAying Connected! and Isobel McCallum, who gave the closing presentation.
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* Taste Our Best is a joint initiative between VisitScotland and the Scottish Government. Launched in 2013, the scheme 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, to give consumers choice.
Picture caption: Pictured at the Highland Tourism Conference at the Kingsmills Hotel, Inverness, are local food producers Rory Cameron, from Cobb's; Michelle Russell, from North Hop; Kingsmills Hotel Head Chef, Johnny Urquhart; VisitScotland Regional Director, Scott Armstrong; Gary Williamson, from Corner on the Square, and Ethel Macdonald from Swanson Foods.
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
- year of food and drink
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
