Press release -
VisitScotland and TripAdvisor team up to put Scotland on world stage
A European-first collaboration between VisitScotland and TripAdvisor will see Scotland’s world-class tourism offering promoted to almost 70 million new potential visitors, generating a potential additional spend of £150 million.
The multi-year deal between VisitScotland and TripAdvisor - the world’s largest travel website with 390 million average unique monthly visitors - follows a successful pilot programme last year that highlighted the wonders of Scotland to the TripAdvisor travel community.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the collaboration in New York at Carnegie Hall on the final day of her visit to the US where she is promoting Scotland as a place to do business.
Following the successful launch of VisitScotland’s first global brand campaign – the Spirit of Scotland - and investment in new technologies, TripAdvisor and VisitScotland will also collaborate on a joint marketing campaign in the UK.
In addition, Scotland has also been named the preferred “test partner” for new destination marketing products in Europe, allowing TripAdvisor and VisitScotland to work together to understand how the latest technology can be used to allow more people to discover Scotland.
Finally, VisitScotland is discussing with TripAdvisor, among others, how they might help grow their social tourism programme, enabling disadvantaged families across the country to take a much needed break, ensuring that the economic benefits of tourism sustain and reach all parts of Scotland.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, said:
“Our tourism industry has always been strong- spending by North American visitors leapt by almost 28% to £633 million in the last year alone - however it’s crucial that we ensure Scotland’s appeal reaches as wide an audience as possible.
“This collaboration will ensure that millions more people will understand Scotland’s appeal, and boost Scotland’s tourism industry for years to come.
“The fact TripAdvisor has chosen Scotland as its first European partner shows just how resilient they believe Scotland’s economy to be – and the fact we were voted the second best country in the world to visit by the Rough Guide means site visitors are guaranteed a good holiday!”
Charlie Smith, Director of Marketing and Digital at VisitScotland, said:
“TripAdvisor is the biggest tourism website in the world based on tourist real experiences. This partnership will give us the chance to learn from those at the forefront of innovation while inspiring millions of potential new visitors. This collaboration will help us put Scotland’s regions, cities and unique experiences on the world stage and to grow our tourism industry for future generations.”
Robin Ingle, Senior Vice President of Sales, said:
“Digitally VisitScotland is at the forefront of DMOs around the world. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in their desire to use our data as a measure of how many more people are actually visiting Scotland as a result of their marketing activity, as opposed to more traditional methods such as visits to their website or email sign-ups. We are looking forward to utilizing TripAdvisor’s data, scale and access to millions of travelers to work with Scotland and highlight all the country has to offer.”
- ENDS -
SG Communications
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Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
- international marketing
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
