Press release -
Family fun in Ayrshire
A FAMILY blogger with more than 40,000 followers from around the world has been promoting Ayrshire following a short break to the region.
Globalmouse Travels – named the UK’s Number One Family Travel Blog in 2016 and 2017 by Vuelio -visited Ayrshire earlier this month as part of a trip designed to show potential visitors the wide range of family friendly activities that can be enjoyed in the region, especially during the winter months.
Nichola West, a UK-based travel writer, who blogs about the ‘ultimate family friendly guide to travelling’ with her husband and three children, aged six years and up, visited a number of different attractions and experiences as part of the trip organised by VisitScotland and East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire Councils.
The four-night trip started out at Auchengree Farm Shop, Beith, where the family picked up some local produce for lunch before travelling to the Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine for an interactive family afternoon.
The family of five stayed at Donnini Apartments in Ayr and enjoyed evening meals throughout their holiday at No 22 in Ayr, the Hollybush Inn and The Waterfront, Ayr.
On the second day of their trip, the family enjoyed a bracing beach walk before trips to Robert Burns Birthplace Museum and the grounds of the impressive Culzean Castle. The day was topped off with a dark sky experience at the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory, near Dalmellington, where the spectactular views of the night’s stars were enjoyed by all of the family during an evening of stargazing.
A short ferry trip from Largs to the Isle of Cumbrae awaited the family on day three, where after a short bus trip to Millport, they hired bikes to explore all that is on offer on the island.
Day four of the Ayrshire experience started with feeding the animals at Blackstone Clydesdales and continued exploring the stately home and grounds of Dumfries House. The trip was finished off with a visit to Ayr beach to run around before their flight home.
Images of the trip have appeared on Globalmouse’s social media channels and a blog will follow at: www.globalmousetravels.com
Nichola West from Globalmouse Travels said: “Scotland is breathtaking in winter. From invigorating beach walks to castle grounds to explore; there is so much to do in every season.
“We adored the Isle of Cumbrae which was perfect for an energetic cycle to keep us warm and after all that exercise there was no guilt felt when digging in to steaming bowls of sticky toffee pudding. Scotland in winter really is a feast for all the senses and we loved exploring Ayrshire.”
Annique Armstrong, VisitScotland Regional Director, said: “Social media plays an important role in promoting Scotland to visitors from all over the world and we were delighted to bring Globalmouse Travels to the region for the very first time.
“Ayrshire is a fantastic destination for families and there is so much to see and do all year round. We hope that more families will be inspired to make the trip to this great part of Scotland as a result of this activity.”
Blog posts/videos can be found here: www.globalmousetravels.com
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- ayrshire
- corporate communications
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
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- 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
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- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
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- 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) 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.
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