Press release —
The Main(s of Drum) event!
A garden centre in Drumoak, Aberdeenshire, which features fresh, seasonally and locally sourced food on its menu, is celebrating after successfully securing two quality awards from VisitScotland.
The Mains of Drum has recently received both a 5-star Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Award and a Taste Our Best Food and Drink award. The Mains of Drum is also the only 5 star Garden Centre currently in the Scottish Quality Assurance scheme.
The Taste Our Best accreditation, which is a joint initiative between VisitScotland and the Scottish Government, with support from Scotland Food and Drink, recognises businesses for including and promoting local produce in over 60 percent of their menu.
Located on the first floor of the garden centre with windows looking out onto the rolling Aberdeenshire hills, the 200 seat Mains of Drum restaurant provides and caters for a variety of visitors with dishes such as Cullen Skink, Stornoway black pudding and eggs from the Sunnyside Farm in Maryculter.
Marketing Manager, Beverley Spindler, from the Mains of Drum said:
“We are absolutely thrilled, not only to be awarded the five stars, but for our restaurant to achieve the ‘Taste our Best’ Award at the same time. We truly believe in providing a top quality service to our customers on every visit and for them to taste delicious, locally grown food, when dining in our beautiful restaurant.
“We have worked hard with local suppliers to include the freshest, top quality Scottish produce on our menus, and it has been great building up good friendships with the local farmers and producers, whilst ultimately reducing our carbon footprint. These awards mean so much to all of our fantastic team and they have genuinely, beyond doubt, set us apart, as we are currently the only Garden Centre in the whole of Scotland to have achieved 5 stars “.
Philip Smith, VisitScotland Regional Director, said: “This is a double success for Mains of Drum and I’d like to congratulate the staff for their hard work and dedication in ensuring a great day out for visitors and showcasing the amazing food and drink that we have right here on our doorstep in Aberdeenshire.
“We know that visitors love authentic, quality Scottish food and drink and Taste Our Best is all about taking this knowledge to the next level and really encouraging the tourism industry and businesses to recognise the real benefits of sourcing, using and promoting local and Scottish produce.
“2015 is the Year of Scotland’s Food and Drink and we hope that all the visitors to our shores this year who are experiencing the range of truly global events across the country will also get to taste the best of Scotland.”
The Taste Our Best initiative brings together the tourism and food and drink industries. It is designed to recognise businesses including; hotels, restaurants, cafes, takeaways, visitor attractions, B&Bs and pubs or bars; that not only offer a quality food and drink experience, but include and promote Scottish produce on their menus, to give consumers choice.
Research has shown that visitors are willing to pay up to 15% more for food that is of Scottish or regional origin and businesses that provide local food can typically enjoy higher level sales of up to 20% per year.
The Taste Our Best scheme is the latest addition to VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance (QA) Schemes, which aim to drive up quality in tourism products across the country. Taste Our Best will provide businesses with an assessment of their food provision and their menu by qualified assessors, with those meeting the necessary criteria gaining the award.
For accommodation providers and visitor attractions, the assessment will take place at the same time as the main VisitScotland Quality Assurance grading, meaning that many tourism businesses that already participate in the QA Scheme will no longer have to apply and pay for a separate food and drink assessment.
Further details on Taste Our Best can be found at: www.visitscotland.org/quality-foodanddrink.aspx
More information on the Mains of Drum can be found at: http://www.mainsofdrum.co.uk/
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- taste our best
- year of food and drink
- 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 has three key roles:
- To market Scotland to all parts of the world to attract visitors
- To provide information – and inspiration – to visitors and potential visitors so they get the best out of a visit to Scotland
- To provide quality assurance to visitors and quality advice to the industry and partners to help the industry meet and strive to exceed customer expectations
- 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.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, the tourism economy supports 270,000 jobs in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the tourism economy contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
- 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
Year of Food and Drink 2015
- 2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’s natural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping our economic success.
- Scotland generates over £2.5m per day through food and drink tourism.
- A series of themed months will create an appetite for key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafood and whisky to berries and high-quality meat
- For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/foodanddrink
