Press release -
Scotland's beach awards announced
Celebrating some of the best managed beaches in the country, Keep Scotland Beautiful has introduced Scotland’s Beach Award as a quality benchmark for the provision of facilities to visitors along Scotland’s coastline.
Sixty beaches have, for the first time ever, received the newly launched accreditation for beach management in Scotland. You can view them on our map, along with directions and details of the facilities available.
From litter free sand, to information provision and toilet provision to maintaining beautiful promenades and secluded bays all the recognised beaches focus on improving and enhancing local environmental quality.
The award is designed to complement the work currently undertaken by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on bathing water quality, and the RNLI on beach safety.
Derek Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said:
"This brand new award focuses on the local environmental quality of Scotland’s beaches - from litter free sand to the provision of information for visitors.
"Beaches are an important asset to communities and their economies. As a year round facility, it is vital that our coastlines are maintained to the highest standards and continue to attract visitors from near and far.
"It is greatly encouraging that so many beaches have received an award. Environmental quality needs priority attention and we will continue our work to support organisations efforts ensure that Scotland’s coastline offers a great day out."
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said:
"We are delighted to see so many beaches recognised by these awards, which reflect the high quality experience visitors can expect when taking a trip to the seaside - whether it be to soak up the summer sun or blow away the winter blues.
"Scotland's landscape and scenery plays an important role in tourism and remains the top attraction for domestic and international visitors alike, which is in no small part due to the thousands of miles of stunning coastline and its incredible array of beautiful beaches."
Calum McPhail, SEPA Environmental Quality manager, said:
"SEPA has responsibility for sampling and testing water at Scotland’s 84 official EU designated bathing waters from 1 June – 15 September. The results from the bathing water season are then reported to the European Commission on an annual basis.
"SEPA welcomes the new focus of Scotland’s Beach Awards – recognising the ongoing commitment of local authorities and communities to meet high quality land based criteria, including beach cleanliness, facilities management and information provision. This complements our work to drive up standards of bathing water quality at Scotland’s designated bathing waters. We would encourage those who intend to enter the water to swim to make use of our electronic information signs where these are available. This real-time water quality information is also available via SEPA’s website, smartphone app and Beachline number."
- ENDS -
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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
