Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 04/05/2023

Find out about our activity to support tourism in Fife (January - March 2023)

Included in this update:

Caroline Warburton, Destination Development Director

Welcome to our latest regional update where we look back at our key activity to support and promote tourism in Fife during the last quarter.   

As we start the traditional tourism season, we're aware that there are still challenges facing many in our industry, and we're working to ensure that Scotland’s profile remains visible to visitors in our key markets in order to drive demand. When visitors get here, we know that they will receive a great welcome, with Fife being home to many award winning businesses. This was demonstrated with two wins from Fife at National Final of the Scottish Thistle Awards in February. 

I have enjoyed being out and about over the last few months including speaking at Scottish Golf Tourism Week in St Andrews and meeting partners including Fife Coast and Countryside Trust and Forth Bridges Forum. There are a number of opportunities coming over the horizon such as continuing to build Dunfermline’s profile as Scotland’s newest city, the UCI World Cycling Championships in August and work continues to gather pace on the new Levenmouth Rail Link.  

We remain committed to doing what we can to support our industry. Whether it is attracting more visitors to the region through our marketing and travel trade activity, providing practical advice on the cost-of-doing business or working with partners to create opportunities for growth. 

Caroline Warburton, Regional Leadership Director, VisitScotland

Marketing Fife

  • Refreshed Fife destination page

    As part of our newly launched consumer website visitscotland.com, we've updated and refreshed our suite of destination pages. Check out our new look destination page for Fife which is full of inspiring information on what to see and do and where to stay across the region.

  • New and updated blogs featuring Fife

    Check out some of our new blogs on visitscotland.com featuring Fife:

  • Working with Fife Council

    Funded by Fife Council we ran a spring publishing campaign promoting short stays for spring / summer 2023, themed around outdoor adventure, luxury travel and food and drink. Activity included: 

    • A digital article with The Times as well as in-print in the Alba section of The Times on 4 March
    • A digital article with Wanderlust and a five-page print advertorial in their April / May edition
    • Digital activity promoting the “Welcome to our home – welcome to Fife” suite of videos featuring East Neuk, Culross and Leven. These videos were promoted through paid social adverts as well as paid YouTube promotion

     

  • VisitScotland email marketing

    Our email marketing team design and publish a series of dedicated emails to our global customer database across multiple languages. In February we issued a dedicated golf themed email to 62,000 contacts in America, Canada and UK with a golf interest. The Old Course at St Andrews featured as the main image header, as well as promoting major golfing events in Fife, and featured Fife within the "ideas for golfing trips" section. 

  • Dunfermline– the easy travel option from Germany, France and Spain 

    Dunfermline was featured as an easy travel connection for visitors from Germany, France, and Spain in a partnership with tour operator Holiday Pirates. Targeting warm audiences through Holiday Pirate's channels, promotion included social media posts, newsletters, app pushes and deals driving people to a dedicated page on its website.

Fife on social (January – March)

1.66 million reach

Number of times Fife content reached people on their social channels

117,800 engagements

Reactions, likes, comments, shares and saves of Fife posts

Reach of 279,200

Top performing post by reach on Instagram was our "Coosday" post from Crail

The power of PR

An update from our St Andrews iCentre team

  • As part of St Andrews Cocktail Week, our iCentre was a pick-up location for Cocktail Week wristbands and hosted two successful tasting events, welcoming almost 700 visitors over the two days
  • In other news for the St Andrews iCentre – the team have been very excited to welcome their very own sheep, as part of the “Meet the Flock campaign” 
  • Opening hours for the St Andrews iCentre have changed, now opening on a Sunday until the end of October

As always, pop in and say hello to our iCentre team, and our "ewe" sheep – they'd all love to hear from you.

St Andrews iCentre sheep statue

Two Fife businesses scoop Scottish Thistle Awards

A huge congratulations to Morton of Pitmilly in St Andrews for scooping the award for Best Self Catering Accommodation and The 150th Open at St Andrews for achieving the Outstanding Sporting Event Award at the National Finals in February this year.

The Scottish Thistle Awards National Final is the highest accolade in the Scottish hospitality, tourism and events sector.

Cycling

The 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships takes place across Scotland in August this year. On 6 August, the Men’s Elite Road Race will travel over the Forth and through Fife into Clackmannanshire.

Partners and tourism businesses are encouraged to help promote both the event as well as celebrate the #PowerOfTheBike

Scotland. Made for Cycling

Our latest campaign Scotland. Made for Cycling has been designed to create a compelling proposition to underpin the focus on Scotland as a leading cycling tourism destination, in the run-up to and beyond the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships.

Check out our campaign video and share with your visitors.

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