Press release -
The best of both worlds
A unique collaboration designed to boost the number of short breaks taken in Glasgow and Loch Lomond has been given £34,000 by VisitScotland.
Destination marketing organisations Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) and Love Loch Lomond have teamed up with ScotRail for a £68,000 marketing campaign, which has been match-funded through the national tourism organisation’s Growth Fund.
Aimed primarily at potential visitors from Edinburgh and Aberdeen, the campaign will highlight the close proximity between the urban experiences of Scotland’s largest city and the beautiful scenery of Loch Lomond.
A key message is the fact that ScotRail operates a regular train service between Glasgow Queen Street and a number of train stations in the Loch Lomond area, including Balloch which has a maximum journey time of 50 minutes.
The marketing activity will include the creation of a website landing pages and a short film as well as radio, online and press advertisements.
The money will also be used to host press trips and to allow the partners group to attend Travmedia International Media Marketplace in London – a showpiece media event for the travel trade.
Liz Buchanan, Regional Partnerships Director at VisitScotland, said: “Many people may not realise just how easy it is to get from the urban excitement of Glasgow to the great outdoors of Loch Lomond. The VisitScotland Growth Fund is all about encouraging Scottish tourism businesses to work together and it is great to see GCMB, Love Loch Lomond and ScotRail join forces to promote these two fabulous destinations, both of which offer unique experiences for visitors.”
Elaine Dickie, Senior Marketing Manager at GCMB, said: “GCMB’s role is to create customers for Glasgow and having been named by travel industry bible National Geographic Traveler as one of the 20 best destinations in the world for 2016 we know that awareness of the city, at home and overseas, is strong. Our focus now is to capitalise on that awareness. VisitScotland’s Growth Fund award will allow us to strengthen our existing partnerships with Love Loch Lomond and ScotRail and work more strategically to implement joint marketing activity that will drive increased visitor volume from our target markets over the next 12 months.”
Alasdair Smart, ScotRail Tourism Manager, said: “We are involved in much more than simply moving people from A to B. This initiative offers a joined-up approach to encouraging visitors to explore what Loch Lomond has to offer, and makes the train part and parcel of the entire experience.”
Karen Donnelly, Manager at Love Loch Lomond, added: “Love Loch Lomond is delighted to be working in partnership with GCMB and ScotRail on this exciting new Growth Fund project linking the outdoor and urban tourism product. Our focus will be to offer visitors an even greater experience by providing a wider range of activities to participate in by linking the city with the beauty and tranquillity of Loch Lomond, The Trossachs and the Clyde Sea Lochs.”
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, please see www.visitscotland.org/growthfund
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
- growth fund
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.
- 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 current 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
