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Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 13/07/2023

Caroline Warburton, Destination Development Director

Welcome to our latest regional industry update for Fife. We've pulled together an overview of our activity from April to June.  

With the summer in full swing, we are hearing encouraging signs from tourism and events businesses about the season ahead. We know there are still challenges however the appetite for holidaying in Scotland is strong. It's encouraging to see interest from both domestic and international markets. 

I have enjoyed getting out and about in recent weeks. I caught up with the Fife Council Tourism Team in Leven to discuss opportunities for the new railway line and the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith. This included a peak at the refurbished Adam Smith Theatre (which is looking fabulous). As well as catching up with businesses in Dunfermline and St Andrews.   

One of the big tickets for this summer is the UCI Cycling World Championships which are just around the corner. And they are coming to Fife, if only briefly! The Men’s Elite Road Race will cross The Queensferry Crossing from Edinburgh on Sunday 6 August then head towards the Kincardine Bridge.    

Read on for more information on our activity to support tourism and events in Fife. 

Marketing Fife

  • New and updated blogs featuring Fife

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

  • Supporting our Museums and Galleries

    Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries in Fife featured within our recent campaign with Museums Galleries Scotland. Influencer @girlsaroundscotland shared a TikTok video as part of their trip. To watch the video and find out more check out our partnership marketing update.

  • Partnership Marketing

    Imagery of Dunfermline Abbey now features in our publishing activity with Beano and ScotRail. This campaign promotes family holidays and day trips across the country. A special landing page – visitscotland.com/beano – was created with Dennis, Gnasher and Minnie highlighting places to visit in each of Scotland’s seven cities which includes Dunfermline.

Fife on social

1.94 million

Number of times Fife content reached people on their social channels

+101,000 engagements

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

Reach of 191,000

Top performing post by reach on Instagram of a charming street in Falkland

Consumer PR featuring Fife

The consumer team previously supported a trip to Dunfermline for writer Robin McKelvie to showcase the city as a historic capital. Further coverage has now also featured in The Telegraph in April with reference to King Charles’ visit as well as Abbot House and the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum. Reach: 675,000.

In May The Guardian featured Fife in a round-up of suggestions for great long weekends mentioning Falkland Estate and Pillars of Hercules. Reach: 105,000.

The consumer team worked on a pitch to media on beaches to explore in Scotland ahead of the summer. Tentsmuir Sands in Fife featured in the round-up in the Scottish Sun. Reach: 880,000.

Coverage in The Telegraph of "places untouched by mass tourism" included St Monans in Fife, Grannie’s Harbour B&B and the East Pier Smokehouse. Reach: 105,000.

Recent North America coverage has included mentions of Fairmont St Andrews in an article titled "25 best summer vacations everyone should consider in 2023". Kingsbarns Golf Links featured in "11 of the most beautiful golf courses in the world", both within Travel and Leisure. Reach 2.3 million.

Corporate PR for Fife

  • media release on the success of "pay as you like" incentives for tourism businesses, including the Scottish Deer Centre and Kingsbarns Distillery in Fife, which appeared in the Fife Herald and East Fife Mail

  • A regional media release highlighting how Fife contributed to the success of the Year of Stories 2022

  • regional media release highlighting the success of our travel trade event - VisitScotland Connect - and some of the regional businesses that attended

  • Destination Development Director Caroline Warburton was interviewed by Holyrood magazine for a feature on Dunfermline’s city status one year on

View our media toolkit for all press releases

Hear from our regional iCentre teams

On Saturday 17 June, St Andrews iCentre hosted its first tasting event of the summer. 

Our tasting events aim to celebrate the region’s local producers and encourages both residents and visitors to pop into the iCentre to sample some of the area’s finest delicacies and learn more about the people behind the products. 

The iCentre team invited Kinnaird Kitchen, Kitschnbake, Kingsbarns Distillery, Rumburra, and St Andrews Hamper Co. to participate in the event. The five local businesses brought with them an enticing range of goodies for our visitors to enjoy.  The team were delighted with the outcome, attracting over 400 visitors into the iCentre.

Scotland's Year of Stories evaluation

Find out more about the full impact of Scotland's Year of Stories 2022 with key insights, learnings and results.
 

Read the full evaluation

Future Themed Year

We're asking for your help to scope out options for a future Themed Year. Our Themed Years celebrate the very best of Scotland and its people. Take part in our survey – it’s open until 20 July 2023.

Complete the survey

2023 UCI Cycling World Championships | all you need to know

We've pulled together a handy guide for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships.

Find out about the events happening across Scotland and in your local area to keep your visitors "on track".

Read the article

person on a bike racing around a track

Men Elite Road Race | Fife

The UCI Cycling World Championships is the first event of its kind ever created with some 13 world championships events taking place from 3 - 13 August this year across Scotland. 

Fife will play host to part of the Men Elite Road Race, which starts in Edinburgh, before making its way across the River Forth to Fife, before heading back into Glasgow on 6 August.

Find out more information about the route and schedule on their website.

Fife Council have also created a handy update on their website about the route in Fife, road closures and information for visitors. Take a look at their dedicated cycling page.

Taking Scotland to the trade

Our intermediary marketing teams undertake an extensive annual programme of activity. This allows us to take Scotland to the world in collaboration with our network of global tour operators and travel agents. We work with this network to promote Scottish experiences and products that are relevant to their clients.

Our platforms include enewsletters, webinars, trade events and market relevant social media channels. Some recent activity has included:

• The Hide at Lindores featured within our May enewsletter
• Dunfermline was the focus of a welcome programme to around 3000 North America travel advisors
• Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum, Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries, Dunfermline Abbey and Eden Mill, to name a few featured in our market webinar to the North America market

VisitScotland Connect 2023

VisitScotland Connect is our biggest business-to-business event for the travel trade. This year, the event took place at the P&J Live in Aberdeen in April. Many tourism businesses from Fife attended, including the University of St Andrews, The R&A World Golf Museum and Best of Holidays Scotland.

Event success in numbers:

  • around 175 tourism businesses in attendance
  • more than 250 global tour operators, guides and travel agents attended
  • buyers represented from 23 countries, including the UK, US, Canada, Europe, China, and Asia Pacific
  • Over 6,000 meetings held

room of people sitting around separate tables discussing business

VisitScotland Connect 2023

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