I’m delighted to share our first Dundee and Angus Regional Update of 2024. This update highlights some of the ways we’ve promoted the region over the last six months, and how we have support the industry with news and opportunities.
2023 was a great year for high-profile events: BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships Gran Fondo race and V&A Dundee's Tartan exhibition, all of which drew thousands of visitors to the region, but also put the region in front of millions of online viewers.
Looking ahead to 2024, it's a year of anniversaries with the 200th anniversary of HMS Unicorn in Dundee, the 100th anniversary of the Caird Hall, and 10 years of Dundee’s status as UNESCO City of Design – a mere youngster compared to the others. Spring is on its way when the snowdrops appear at Glamis Castle and their Snowdrop Festival this month is an important event to start the year. Golfers will flock to Carnoustie in July when Carnoustie Golf Links hosts The Senior Open. All provide excellent opportunities for us to promote the region and ensure that visitors – new and returning – have Dundee and Angus on their holiday map.
We work closely with partners in the region to share your news nationally and national opportunities locally, so do keep in touch through Angus Tourism Cooperative and the Dundee Tourism Partnership. Make sure you’re up to date by joining our regional industry Facebook groups, subscribing to our e-newsletter or connecting through LinkedIn.
All the very best for a successful 2024.
Caroline
Check out some of our new and refreshed blogs on visitscotland.com featuring Dundee and Angus:
The team at visitscotland.com have been reviewing and updating some of our key pages for the region. These are handy to share with your visitors or link to on your website.
They include information on how to get to Dundee and Angus, where to go and where to stay:
Dundee and Angus continues to feature within our email programme to over one million global contacts, across 15 markets and five languages. Each email is designed with seasonality and geographic spread in mind, while promoting responsible tourism.
Our emails signpost to businesses and places in Dundee and Angus, highlighting experiences and travel inspiration.
Dundee and Arbroath featured in our recent marketing activity with ScotRail and Beano to promote sustainable family days out.
They featured in the Scottish Daily Express and the Daily Record newspaper and online.
All this promotional activity was designed to captivate our family audience and signpost to a dedicated webpage on visitscotland.com.
Check out our totally cool days out page
Our Global PR team works to promote Dundee and Angus and Scotland across key travel and lifestyle media. In the last six months, the team have shared information and press releases to more than 2,500 media contacts in the UK, North America, Germany, France, China, Australia, and the UAE.
The team pitch ideas to media contacts throughout the year, handle enquiries and requests from global media, and attend events such as the World Travel Market in London.
The team also host press visits across Scotland to generate coverage that truly reflects all the country has to offer.
Coverage in French magazine L'obs featuring Glamis Castle
UK
Our UK team worked with media on a story featuring Scotland’s best summer beaches. The Mail online published a story which included Lunan Bay in Angus as well as Lunan House Hotel as a local place to stay.
Read the story at the Daily Mail Online
Around the release of the new Barbie film in July 2023, the UK team compiled a list of pink places to visit in Scotland. This included the Tartan exhibition at V&A Dundee. Coverage has appeared in print in The Sunday Post, the Daily Record online, as well as video content on the YouTube Channel of the Daily Record.
Watch the promo film on YouTube
The Sunday Post mentioned V&A Dundee and the RSS Discovery in a pitch around exploring cities.
North America
An extensive feature was published in the New York Times putting a modern twist on Scottish traditions. The piece highlights tartan and V&A Dundee. The feature also includes mention of Arbikie Distillery in Angus and its “hardcore sustainability practices” creating the world’s first climate positive spirits and a rye whisky.
The North American team hosted a press visit for Condé Nast Traveler in June and subsequently Scotland was widely featured in an article looking at tartan and the kilt. It details the Tartan exhibition at V&A Dundee, noting the exhibition’s use of classic tartan patterns in high fashion.
Europe
We supported Stephanie Condis on a press trip to Dundee looking at Verdant Works and the story of Dundee's Industrial textile and social heritage. Her visit led to coverage in French magazine L'obs.
Angus was also represented by Glamis Castle with a "Dracula trail" piece in Geo.
We continue to support the region by sharing local news through our corporate channels, including recent reports about the impact that both V&A Dundee and Radio 1’s Big Weekend have had on the city. More recently, we have provided supporting quotes as sponsor of the Event of the Year category at the Scottish Trad Music Awards, which took place at the Caird Hall in December.
We also responded to media enquiries around the closure of our Dundee iCentre in September and in the same month announced the return of our successful travel trade event – Connect – in April 2024, encouraging local businesses to sign up.
Want to know more about Connect?
And as part of the Scottish Thistle Awards programme for 2023, we announced businesses shortlisted in the Central & East Thistle Awards in July and then revealed the winners at the Regional Final in September, which included Newton Farm Holidays in Forfar.
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.
Take a look at some of the highlights from the last six months:
Dundee and Angus on social (July – December 2023)
2.55 million reach
Number of times Dundee and Angus content reached people on their social channels
452,660 engagements
Reactions, likes, comments, shares and saves of Dundee and Angus posts
Reach of 126,300+
Top performing post by reach on Instagram was an image of the wildflower meadow at Morgan Academy