Press release -
There’s ‘snow’ place like home
A NEW £60,000 marketing campaign which aims to promote Scottish snowsports to new audiences has received a major boost from the national tourism organisation.
The Scottish Snowsports Marketing Group (SSMG) has been awarded £30,000 from the VisitScotland Growth Fund to help promote Scotland as a destination of choice for skiing and snowboarding under their brand of Ski-Scotland.
The 12-month digital drive will utilise video and social media channels to showcase the unique offering in Scotland – quality facilities, easy accessibility and beautiful scenery – to target snowsports enthusiasts living in areas of England, Northern Ireland and the Scottish Central Belt who travel overseas for their annual ski or snowboarding holiday.
The campaign will use video footage, develop partnerships with industry and influencers to increase their social media reach and feature a ‘Tartan Freestyle tour’ of kilted, elite Scottish athletes to help provide a boost to the Scottish snowsports industry following a challenging 2016-17 season. It will also highlight the accessibility, good value, environmentally-friendly and ‘no fuss’ aspects of a Scottish snowsports holiday and is already creating a real buzz based on this winter’s excellent early season snow. This will continue in the run-up to season 2018-19.
The initiative will promote all of Scotland’s snowsports areas: CairnGorm Mountain, Glencoe Mountain, Glenshee, Nevis Range and The Lecht ski centres which will also benefit other nearby businesses. It is estimated that a successful Scottish snowsports season can contribute more than £37million to the economy, of which only £7.5million is spent ‘on the hill’ at the snowsports resorts with the remainder spent on accommodation, shopping, alternative activities, eating and drinking and on transport, particularly fuel for the car.
Steve Duncan, VisitScotland Marketing Manager, said: “We promote Scotland with Scotland. Partnership and collaboration is at the heart of Scottish tourism and VisitScotland works with local industry to develop and deliver initiatives that grow the visitor economy. We have a long and successful track record of working with the Scottish Snowsports Marketing Group and are delighted to support their exciting new campaign. Not only does Scotland offer the best outdoor skiing and snowboarding in the UK, but the resorts are all easily accessible and boast some of the most breath-taking scenery in the world.”
Chair of Ski-Scotland Andy Meldrum said: “We are delighted to have this support from VisitScotland Growth Fund which will allow us to use innovative activities and benefit from the huge reach of social media to promote the great skiing and snowboarding which Scotland’s mountains offer. Already, due to excellent early snow, we are benefitting from this new activity.”
The VisitScotland Growth Fund supports collaborative tourism marketing projects which focus on growth and ensure that visitors experience the true Spirit of Scotland. To be eligible for a Growth Fund award, applicants must place a strong emphasis on digital marketing and the creation of digital content assets
For more information on Ski-Scotland and for the latest conditions reports direct from the slopes, visit: www.ski-scotland.com or https://www.facebook.com/SkiScotland/
To find out more about the VisitScotland Growth Fund, go to www.visitscotland.org/growthfund
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- growth fund
- corporate communications
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 five overarching strategies: Marketing, Events, Quality and Sustainability, Inclusive Tourism, International Engagement.
- 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 tourism in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
2018 Year of Young People
- The Year of Young People 2018 will be the next of the Scottish Government’s series of themed years, following the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology 2017.
- The Year of Young People (YoYP 2018) will inspire Scotland through its young people aged 8 to 26, celebrating their achievements, valuing their contributions to communities and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally and globally
- Central to YoYP 2018 will be a celebratory events programme that puts young people at the heart of its development and delivery, creating new and valuable experiences for young Scots and the wider public, with links to the inaugural 2018 European Championships.
- Over 200 young people throughout Scotland are currently being recruited to become YoYP 2018 Ambassadors. Ambassadors will ensure that people and organisations in their communities know about what’s happening and will lead on projects and activities to create events and opportunities to celebrate young people.
- The Year of Young People will have six themes which were developed in co-production with young people themselves:
- oParticipation – looking at how young people can influence public services and decisions which affect their lives
- oEducation – creating a stronger role for young people in shaping their learning
- oHealth and Wellbeing – supporting young people to lead healthier, active lives and have opportunities to learn about and improve their mental health and resilience
- oEquality and Discrimination – broadcasting the value of young Scots, challenging negative perceptions of young people, and supporting young people to take leading roles in challenging discrimination in all its forms.
- oEnterprise and regeneration – celebrating young people’s role in innovation, entrepreneurship and the Scottish economy as well as making Scotland a greener and more pleasant place to live
- oCulture – celebrating young people’s talent and contribution to Scottish culture and arts.
- Further information on what’s happening and how people can get involved can be found on the new website www.yoyp2018.scot or @YOYP2018 on Twitter.
