In this update:
Article published 11/05/2023
Introduction from Chris Taylor
Welcome to our latest regional update of the year where we look back at our key activity for the first quarter of 2023 between January and March. There are many challenges still facing our industry but at the start of our traditional tourism season in Scotland, we want to remind those in tourism and events of how far we have come, and the opportunities that lie ahead.
It was fantastic to be able to celebrate the hard work, passion and commitment within tourism and events at the national final of the Scottish Thistle Awards in February. And with the countdown to the UCI Cycling World Championships taking place this summer firmly on, we launched a cycling industry toolkit to help support businesses to make the most of the opportunity and further develop Scottish cycling tourism.
Scottish Tourism Month in March presented the opportunity to celebrate our achievements and for the industry to come together at events throughout the region to share learnings, best practice, and ideas for future collaboration.
The following is a round-up of some of our activity in the Highlands in recent months.
VisitScotland Connect 2023
A very successful VisitScotland Connect was held in Aberdeen last month during our first in-person international travel trade event since the pandemic.
Regional tourism businesses which attended to promote the Highlands included:
- Cairngorm Mountain
- Dundreggan Rewilding Centre
- Nevis Range Development Company
- Rothiemurchus Estate.
Held at P&J Live, this was the country’s biggest business-to-business event for the travel trade and gave Scottish businesses and destination management companies the chance to connect with key buyers from around the globe to help attract visitors and grow Scotland’s valuable tourism and events industry sustainably.
Tourism businesses met with more than 250 global tour operators, guides and travel agents who attended from 23 countries, including the UK, US, Canada, Europe, China, and Asia Pacific.
Read more about the success of VisitScotland Connect 2023
While in Scotland, these international buyers also sampled some of our country’s famous hospitality, produce, and attractions through a series of familiarisation (fam) trips.
Since the pandemic, visitors have been seeking extra reassurance and guidance offered by agents or businesses that facilitate connections between tourism suppliers and consumers, such as tour operators, travel agents and destination marketing organisations. More than half of international visitors use such travel intermediaries to plan and book.
VisitScotland Connect forms a key part of our marketing strategy with travel intermediaries to bring visitors to Scotland throughout the year.
Marketing and campaign activity
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Spirit of the Highlands and Islands
The Highlands was included in all global campaigns, including:
- UK paid social media campaign for spring 2023, which generated 35.3 million impressions, 5.1 million video views and over 79,400 clicks from content promoted across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and video ads.
Take a look at our video content, used as part of these advertisements: our area prominently featured in our "Discover", "Connection", and "Adventure" short films. - An e-newsetter dedicated to the Spirit of the Highlands and Islands campaign, which reaches over 1.2 million consumers across a domestic and international audience.
- We invited popular Scottish influencer Scotland Uncovered to visit Badenoch and the Cairngorms National Park to showcase the natural and cultural heritage. Locations featured included Highland Folk Museum, the Shinty trail (and the Kingussie Shinty team), Ruthven Barracks, Dalwhinnie Distillery, Strathspey Storywalks, Laggan Wolftrax, Spirit of the Spey and more.
- As part of VisitScotland Connect 2023, we created a dedicated Spirit fam trip. This showcased the Highlands to 10 high profile international tour operators and took them to locations such as Brora, East Sutherland, Inverness, Beauly and the Cairngorms National Park.
Scotland is Calling phase four
Scotland is Calling is our international, multi-million pound global marketing campaign. It aims to bolster the recovery of Scotland’s valuable tourism and events industry by encouraging younger visitors to make Scotland their top travel choice.
Phase four activity took place between September 2022 – March 2023, and included content from the Highlands.
Our paid media activity included a video featuring the Highlands, to drive destination awareness to new younger audiences. We supported this by influencer marketing, PR, social media (Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest) and VisitScotland channels. It also included intermediary and business-to-business content.
Campaign results include:
- For UK audiences across Instagram, TikTok and Teads between February – March 2023: 1.9 million video views and over 12,400 clicks
- For US audiences across Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat and Connected TV between January – March 2023: 8.1 million video views and 58,000 clicks
Part of this campaign also included a partnership with Expedia. This resulted in:- For the UK audience between September 2022 - January 2023: 1.5 million impressions, 37,700 room nights booked, 587 air tickets booked, $5 million in gross bookings
- For the US audience between October 2022 – March 2023: 3.5 million impressions, 5,459 room nights booked, 796 air tickets booked, $2.1 million in gross bookings.
- UK paid social media campaign for spring 2023, which generated 35.3 million impressions, 5.1 million video views and over 79,400 clicks from content promoted across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and video ads.
Social media statistics
154 posts
of the Highlands on our social channels
20.4 million
reached through Moray Speyside content across all channels
1 million
engaged with Highland content online
Global PR activity
- 18 pieces of content coverage from a broadcast campaign which focused on voluntourism and used the opening of Dundreggan Re-wilding centre as a hook to create interest about the Highlands & Islands. This coverage came from across the UK and Scotland, including outlets such as BBC Scotland and BBC Somerset.
- The Guardian (print and online) featured the new Dundreggan Rewilding Centre as a place to visit in 2023. This followed our "What's New for 2023" activity in late 2022. Skye was also featured in the same article for the new Bracken Hide accommodation. The combined reach from this activity was over 18.5 million.
- The Sunday Express, Sunday Mirror and Daily Star also featured Skye’s Bracken Hide as a pick for where to visit this year. The combined readers reach for this activity is more than 523,000.
- Supported a press trip for a writer from Time Out to visit Inverness and Highlands. It followed his arrival to Inverness with support from the Caledonian Sleeper team. During the trip, he visited a range of locations including Urquhart Castle, and the Kingsmills Hotel. The reach of this activity is over 27.5 million. It resulted in the article "What's it like to take the Hogwarts Express overnight to Scotland?"
- Journalist from JRNY Magazine visited the North-West Highlands for a press trip, during the off-season, earlier this year. JRNY is a glossy travel coffee-table magazine which reaches an affluent audience. The editorial for this magazine, which publishes three editions annually with a 5,000 circulation, is created by some of the industries best travel writers.
- The March edition of JRNY features Alladale Wilderness Reserve; Knockan Crag; Ecotone Cabins (near Ullapool) and the Caledonian Sleeper in a full-colour 12-page article.
- Writer Robin McKelvie visited Inverness to cover what’s new in the city, and met with the CEO of Visit Inverness Loch Ness, Michael Goulding. This coverage appeared in The National online, and achieved a reach of more than 100,000.
- ITV's This Morning team visited to Scotland to cover the new Dundreggan Rewilding Centre and Glen Affric following our activity. On average, the programme reaches around one million viewers. Watch the feature with Dr Scott on itv.com.
- The UK Mail online (with an audience of over 24.7 million) attended a North-West Highland press trip in mid-March, and then published an article using the hook of Britain's most remote mainland hotel, Garvault House in Sutherland. Take a look at the article, which highlights the local landscape and area, and experiences to be had in the North Highlands.
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Three journalists from Hong Kong visited Aberdeenshire and the Highlands including Inverness city, Jacobite Cruise Loch Ness – Inspiration (The Clansman Cruise), Loch Ness Clansman Hotel, Uile-bheist Distillery and Brewery, Dolphin Spirit Inverness and AC Inverness.
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In January 2023, locations in the Scottish Highlands (Inverness, Loch Ness, Fort Augustus, Fort William) were featured by qq.com (China) for its breath-taking scenery and rich culture, with a reach of 199 million. They also featured by toutiao.com as the destination for a perfect holiday in Scotland, with a reach of over 2.4 million.
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In February 2023, a story of hiking in the Cairngorm with Wilderness Scotland ran as a four-page cover story in Traveller Australia. This is the travel section inserted into the weekend editions of the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age newspapers. The article also featured online, "The wild region of Scotland the Queen would escape to."
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Bracken Hide on Isle of Skye (Highlands) was featured by Australian Financial Review (AFR) as one of the ten eco-friendly destinations to ease your conscience, also in February 2023.
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Rewilding in Scottish Highlands was featured by National Geographic Traveler China, with a print circulation of over 790,000.
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In March 2023, Highlands was featured by baijiahao.baidu.com for the magnificent landscape, wildlife, coastlines and best place for hiking and camping, with a reach of 33 million.
Scotland. Made for Cycling.
Time to gear up!
To help industry prepare for the upcoming UCI Cycling World Championships 2023, we've created an industry guide full of information and resources to help businesses get up to speed on all things cycling.
This will be the single biggest cycling event in history, bringing together for the first time 13 existing UCI World Championships into one mega-event. The event includes the Mountain Bike Downhill Championships, which will take place in Fort William from 3 - 5 August 2023.
We want to help you make the most of Scotland's cycling product, and help Scotland further grow its cycling tourism market and establish itself as a world-class cycling destination.
Find out more
We're encouraging our partners, and tourism businesses across Scotland, to help promote the event as well as celebrate the #PowerOfTheBike.
Scotland and UK media
Our corporate PR team work closely with Scottish and UK media to raise awareness of our work to promote the Highlands to visitors, the value of tourism and how we offer support for the industry. Some of the most recent highlights include:
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We issued an opinion editorial from Destination Development Director Chris Taylor about the tourism season ahead in the Highlands. This was covered by regional media including the John O Groat Journal, the Ross-shire Journal, the Inverness Courier and The Highland Times.
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We provided reactive quotes to media from Chris Taylor on a number of topics, including the popularity of Loch Ness/Nessie and the Jacobite steam train with visitors; screen tourism/The Traitors TV show and its impact on visitor numbers to the Highlands; wildlife watching in the Highlands and Astro / dark skies tourism.
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We provided supportive quotes for a press release about Visit Inverness Loch Ness receiving the ITB Earth Award. Go to scottishtourismallicance.co.uk for more information. The Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund award made to improve the Storr paths on Skye. More info on the path improvement on highland.gov.uk. We also provided a supportive quote about the opening of Inverness Airport railway station. More information on transport.gov.scot.
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We encouraged tourism businesses across Scotland to take part in VisitScotland Connect, our global travel trade workshop which took place in Aberdeen last month. More information on media.visitscotland.org
Highlands on visitscotland.com
Blogs are a way to reach potential visitors to the Highland through a range of targeted online content, which matches experiences visitors are searching for. Be sure to share them across your social channels to inspire your future visitors.
The following are some of the new content featuring the region:
- Check out cycling events in Scotland you won’t want to miss – featuring Etape Loch Ness, Bealach Mor and the 2023 UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships 2023
- Browse nine Scottish islands to visit for the day featuring Skye and Raasay
- Read about the six types of touring trips in Scotland without a car featuring the Caledonian Sleeper to Inverness
Regional partner update
The inaugural SCOTO – Scottish Community Tourism Gathering took place on the 2 March. Caitlin McLeod, Regional Development Executive, attended and was able to lead a short workshop discussing how community enterprises, and those running local tourism experiences, could work with VisitScotland. Learn more about SCOTO on scoto.co.uk.
Venture North (Destination Management Organisation for Caithness & Sutherland) held their Tourism Gathering on 7 March with the theme: “the power of collaboration and working together”. Our Destination Development Director, Chris Taylor, presented an update on the latest news and campaigns.
Building on the success of last year, Lochaber Chamber of Commerce held their Tourism Roadshow again from 14 - 15 March. Caitlin McLeod and Cassie McEwan, Industry Relationship Manager, joined key industry partners in Fort William, Strontian and Ballachulish, and discussed local tourism with a range of businesses and community members.
Related links
20/04/2023