Press release -
Berlin gets a taste of Scotland
From Gretna Green to Loch Ness, tourism businesses from up and down Scotland are this week joining the national tourism organisation at the world’s leading travel trade show.
More than 180,000 visitors are expected to flock to ITB Berlin, where VisitScotland will be joined on the VisitBritain stand by tour operators, attractions, and accommodation and travel providers from Dumfries & Galloway up to the Highlands.
Behind the United States, Germany is Scotland’s biggest overseas tourism market, welcoming 323,000 visitors a year and generating £175 million for the economy.
With a particular focus on Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage & Archaeology, the event will give tourism businesses the chance to meet face-to-face with tour operators looking to add Scotland to their holiday itineraries or to expand their existing programmes.
Running from tomorrow (Wednesday 8 March) until Sunday 12 March, the first three days of the event is dedicated to members of the travel trade, while the remainder is open to members of the public.
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: “VisitScotland supports industry in their aspirations to internationalise and to attract more business and income from international markets. Worth £175 million a year, Germany is a key market for Scottish tourism and attending ITB Berlin is a great way for Scottish businesses to maintain existing relationships and to establish new ones with German tour operators.”
VisitScotland’s partners at ITB Berlin are:
• Highland Explorer Tours, Edinburgh
• Visit Inverness Loch Ness
• WK ProTour – a company that specialises in representing Scottish tourism providers in Germany. At ITB Berlin, WK ProTour will be representing Historic Environment Scotland, Connoisseurs Scotland, CalMac Ferries, The National Trust for Scotland, ICMI – The Collection; Gretna Green and Trump Turnberry Resort.
The Greenboxx will allow visitors to the stand to pose in front of a green screen of stunning Scottish backgrounds, including Dunnottar Castle, Glen Coe and Loch Ness. They will then be invited to tweet or share their pictures on Facebook via a special VisitScotland/DFDS album.
Topics
- Tourism
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
- 2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology
- 2017 is the year to delve into the past and discover Scotland’s fascinating stories through a wide-ranging variety of new and existing activity to drive the nation’s tourism and events sector, boosting tourism across Scotland.
- The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology begins on 1 January 2017 and will end on 31 December 2017. It will build on the momentum generated by previous themed years in Scotland including the 2015 Year of Food and Drink, Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
- The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Creative Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.
- The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is supported by £570,000 of Scottish Government funding.
- The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
- For more information visit visitscotland.com/HHA2017 or join the conversation at #HHA2017
