What's included in this update?
Introduction from Development Manager, Steve Mathieson
Scotland’s UNESCO Trail - Shetland UNESCO Global Geopark
Inspiring visitors by blogging
Year of Stories 2022 - Shetland activity
In other news
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It has been fantastic to see the return of domestic and international visitors to Shetland over the summer months. From the traditional opening event of the season, Shetland Folk Festival, to the recent Wool Week, we’ve seen excellent visitor numbers arriving in the islands.
As we approach the winter season, we will continue to work with partners in our tourism and events industry on promoting activity that extends the season and ensures Scotland - and Shetland - remains front of mind for potential visitors.
We’re prioritising activities that will stimulate demand and new bookings for the industry to support its long-term recovery, with more details in our update.
We know that many businesses are facing difficult decisions and are having to consider how they adapt their operations to manage the cost challenges. We would encourage you to explore our website for all the latest industry advice, support and guidance and we will bring you news on industry events taking place in the region.
We also want to take the opportunity to celebrate our tourism and events industry who have worked tirelessly in the past two years. The return of the Highlands & Islands Tourism Awards in November offers us the chance to do this and I would like to wish the four Shetland shortlisted businesses the very best of luck.
Best regards,
Steve Mathieson
Some of Scotland’s most iconic, diverse and culturally significant sites are being promoted to domestic and international visitors with the launch of our dedicated marketing campaign, developed in collaboration with UNESCO and designation partners.
The campaign will promote Scotland’s UNESCO Trail to potential visitors from the UK & Ireland, Germany and France with the aim of encouraging them to discover more about the country’s 13 place-based designations included in the trail. Read more about the campaign and trail.
The Shetland UNESCO Global Geopark is now part of the national UNESCO trail, you can see the dedicated Shetland content at the trail website.
Our content team create a range of articles, web content and blogs to inspire potential visitors. We've pulled together some of our latest blogs for you to share on your social media channels.
12 Unique experiences and unusual things to do in Shetland
12 Reasons why Shetland is the perfect escape
6 Unmissable things to do in Shetland
Embrace your inner Viking at Shetland's fire festivals
Our regional press officer Kim Walton has been working with the Shetland team to promote Shetland to a regional and national audience. Through social media, press activity, radio and TV interviews, our spokesperrson and Island Manager Steve Mathieson has been kept busy!
Read on for more on the press activity.
Steve Mathieson, VisitScotland Development Manager for Shetland, conducted an interview with BBC Radio Shetland about Shetland Wool Week’s value to tourism in Shetland.
We shared a number of tweets relating to Shop Local in our Lerwick iCentre, including the popularity of Joan Fraser’s Fair Isle scarves and a ‘Meet the Maker’ event with Eve Eunson and Mary Fraser in Lerwick iCentre.
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Steve spoke to the Shetland News about the importance of screen tourism to Shetland following the news that an eighth series of Shetland was planned.
And he spoke to BBC Scotland’s The Nine about the new series of Shetland and the impact it has had on tourism on the islands.
We arranged for Steve to be interviewed by BBC Radio Shetland about St Ninian’s Isle beach coming out top in a survey of the top 10 UK beaches.
Two projects in Shetland will receive a share of £4.45 million to assist critical projects on climate change, population retention and tourism as part of the Islands Programme.
The Programme supports the implementation of the 2019 National Islands Plan, helping to make the Scottish islands even better places to live, study, work and raise a family.
The two projects that were awarded funding were:
The Year of stories 2022 continues with a range of in-person, virtual and hybrid events. The Shetland Museum and Archives are hosting a series of events as part of the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund with Shetland’s community stories at its heart.
Here are two Year of Stories 2022 events taking place in Shetland:
If the Isles could speak: Shetlands Hidden Stories (August - October 2022)
This exhibition showcased stories held within the Shetland Museum and Archives focusing on two chosen themes:
Year of Stories Film Series
A series of films will be released over the coming months including stories of lesser known tales of myths and superstition in the isles. There will also be a film which captures Da Peerie Ooricks storybooks, written by local author Ann Marie Anderson, telling the story of Myrtle and Meenie, two friendly witches who turn a monster good.
Find out more Shetland museum and archives and the Year of Stories 2022 events
We provide face-to-face information provision and inspiration to visitors through a Scotland-wide network of iCentres (Information Centres). Our iCentres remain at the heart of information delivery. Our knowledgeable and passionate staff provide a personalised service to visitors, making their visit even more memorable and helping them to experience all the local area and surrounding region have to offer.
We've been talking to our staff at our Lerwick iCentre to discuss the period of July - September 2022.
For the team in Lerwick, we have been excited to see the return of the Cruise industry. It returned with a restricted capacity but throughout the season we have seen gaining confidence and building back up to capacity.
In the last quarter, we have welcomed 46 Cruise ships to Lerwick - Lerwick harbour has also seen a healthy return of visitors travelling by yacht so it has been excellent to see all of these visitors returning to Shetland.
Lerwick has seen a healthy return in visitor numbers over the summer months. Although the footfall for the past quarter is 8860 visitors fewer than in 2019, we believe that most of this difference is due to a change in behaviour of cruise passengers who have arrived more prepared. Despite the footfall being a little bit down on the equivalent quarter in 2019 the iCentre retail sales are up 11% on 2019 which is an excellent sign of recovery.
The iCentre team have received a lot of positive feedback from our visitors this year who have found Shetland very welcoming to returning visitors. We have had many visitors coming back in at the end of their trip to thank the team for their assistance both pre-arrival and during their visit. We have had six 5* TripAdvisor reviews in the last quarter, the majority of which mention the iCentre teams enthusiasm for sharing Shetland and the knowledge our team has.
Shetland has been getting back into its regular schedule of festivals and events. In the last quarter Shetland’s film festival (ScreenPlay) and book festival (WordPlay) were very well attended. One of Shetland’s largest festival, Shetland Wool Week returned at the end of September. The festival had been scaled down for this year as planning began when there were still questions over travel restrictions.
The iCentre had an outreach desk at the Shetland Wool Week Hub to help their attendees organise travel and provide non Wool Week information for their attendees. It was an excellent week working alongside the Shetland Amenity Trust (Shetland Wool Week organisers) and the Shetland Museum & Archives team (where the hub was located).
We also hosted a meet the maker event during Wool Week in the iCentre where two of our Shop Local suppliers came into the iCentre to talk to visitors about their work. These were Eve Eunson who makes Fair Isle Chairs which is now on the British Craft Council’s Red Endangered Craft list, and Mary Fraser who diversifies traditional Fair Isle knitting by making a range of household items using Fair Isle.
As we move into the winter months, we will be working with Living Lerwick (the local BID) on high street events for Christmas, with late night shopping and hosting the vote for the best dressed shop window.
In the iCentre, we will also be undertaking our usual winter activities of refreshing our information database and preparing for the Up Helly Aa festival in January.