How we’re working to grow the visitor economy

Delivering for Argyll & The Isles

Our partnerships in the region continue to grow stronger and our work with Argyll & The Isles Tourism Cooperative (AITC), Argyll & Bute Council and other public sector and industry partners has ensured the region has taken full advantage of the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design as well as having an excellent presence in VisitScotland’s Spirit of Scotland marketing campaign.

From Hinterland to the Festival of Architecture’s Scotstyle Top 100, Argyll has made the most of its architectural heritage in this prominent Themed Year. We aim to build on this with all partners in the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology 2017 where Argyll & The Isles can capitalise on its reputation for outstanding culture and heritage. From the ancient kingdom of Dalriada to the world renowned Iona, Argyll & The Isles is set for a fantastic year.

David Adams McGilp,Regional Director, VisitScotland

Introduction

DELIVERING FOR ARGYLL & THE ISLES

From the ancient kingdom of Dalriada to the world renowned Iona, Argyll & The Isles is set for a fantastic year.

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• 63 million views of our series of online Spirit of Scotland documentaries and ads featuring the Isle of Tiree and An Ceann Mor in Inveruglas on Loch Lomond

• More than 7,000 referrals to businesses in Argyll & The Isles from visitscotland.com in 2015/16

• More than £311,000 invested by VisitScotland in Argyll & The Isles events in 2015/16 including the Cowal Highland Gathering and Mull Rally

• 674,000 opportunities to see or hear messaging about Argyll & The Isles in our dedicated VisitScotland spring marketing campaign in 2016

• 240% increase in referrals to businesses in the Argyll & The Isles from visitscotland.com in 2015/16 compared to 2014/15

• More than 176 million potential consumers reached worldwide by our consumer PR activity for the Argyll & The Isles in 2015/16

• 489 businesses participate in one of VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance schemes in Argyll & The Isles. 260 of those have achieved four or five stars representing a commitment to quality in the region

Key stats for Argyll & The Isles

DELIVERING FOR ARGYLL & THE ISLES

Overnight visitors to Argyll & The Isles in 2015

Trips (000's)

Spend (£m)

Domestic 971 263

Overseas 153 47

Total 1,124 310

Sources: Great Britain Tourism Survey 2015 and International Passenger Survey 2015. Regional tourism data is produced from surveys and can have a relatively small sample size. This can increase error margins and therefore the data should be treated with caution.

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STRATEGIC ACTIVITYVisitScotland has been investing significant resources over the past year to support the national strategy: Tourism Scotland 2020 with the vision to become a destination of first choice by 2020. This is realised in the region through AITC’s response to this strategy, which is being delivered by industry and public sector partners.

VisitScotland makes a difference by delivering economic success for Scotland on a global stage as a place to visit and invest in and by supporting a wide ranging programme of events, marketing and partnership projects.

Strategic activity in Argyll & The Isles includes representation on the AITC board as well as overseeing the work of AITC with other public sector partners on the Argyll & The Isles Strategic Partnership Steering Group.

We work with our industry and public sector partners to deliver projects such as the innovation and digitisation of tourism, through our partnership with Digital Tourism Scotland and direct business support; internationalisation through discounted trade missions, VisitScotland expo and global marketing opportunities as part of our #ScotSpirit campaign; and encouraging investment in the region.

The consumer profile of Argyll & The Isles is improving all the time, and we support AITC, partner and business activity across regional marketing, skills development, destination development and quality. VisitScotland will continue to work with partners on product development around the best experiences — the natural environment, marine and coastal activity, food and drink and first-class customer service.

DELIVERING FOR ARGYLL & THE ISLES

Developing tourism across Argyll & The Isles

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INDUSTRY SUPPORT VisitScotland sells Scotland with Scotland, which ultimately means working together and supporting the tourism industry to market our country to the world.

In Argyll & The Isles over 1,200 businesses are currently engaged with VisitScotland’s opportunities, with many more benefiting indirectly.

Quality is crucial to our future success and needs to be at the forefront of all that we do to ensure competitive advantage. Our Quality Assurance (QA) Scheme has been operating for over 30 years and is now one of the best in the world. More than 490 businesses in Argyll & The Isles are committed to the scheme.

Our support also includes a range of Welcome Schemes and promotional opportunities spanning; online, marketing and iCentre activity; international events and Travel Trade business missions.

One of our most powerful assets is our people. Our Industry Relationship Managers, Alison Feaks and Donald Hoy, provide tailored support and advice to businesses in Argyll & The Isles.

To maintain competitiveness within an ever changing landscape, additional opportunities developed include; enhanced free web listings on visitscotland.com with booking engine integration, new Welcome Schemes, the VisitScotland Information Partner programme (VIP) and Scotland’s Online Community.

DELIVERING FOR ARGYLL & THE ISLES

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VisitScotland’s marketing provides a shop window for Scotland — stimulating investment, jobs, and millions of visitors.

GLOBAL CAMPAIGNSVisitScotland launched its first ever global campaign — the Spirit of Scotland — in February 2016, with one message and jaw-dropping visuals running throughout.

Our campaign includes targeted TV, digital and print marketing. Argyll & The Isles has featured across the campaign — in videos, print and digital advertising, direct mail packs and more — across the UK, US, Germany and France.

Shots of Argyll & The Isles feature not only in the cinematic-style TV ad, which includes images of The Tiree Wave Classic and An Ceann Mor on the banks of Loch Lomond near Inveruglas, but also in our series of online films that show windsurfer William MacLean on Tiree and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Ranger Fiona Thompson.

This activity is a base layer for all to build on and the campaign invites everyone to get involved and share their #ScotSpirit

in order to help generate more visits and grow the visitor economy.

In the first five months alone, there were more than 130,000 shares of #ScotSpirit (average 1,000 per day) and more than 20 million views of the online campaign films. #ScotSpirit also trended at number 20 worldwide on Twitter.

REGIONAL CAMPAIGNSArgyll & Bute Council and Argyll & The Isles Tourism Cooperative teamed up with VisitScotland to deliver regional activity in spring through various media including digital and press promotion. As a result, we generated the opportunity for almost 700,000 people to see our messaging along with a further 5,000 web visits and more than 3,000 competition entries.

Further to this, added-value activity for Argyll & The Isles included a partnership with Diageo to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lagavulin Distillery on Islay, which consisted of an enewsletter sent to a database of over 830,000 people in the UK interested in taking a trip to Scotland plus social media activity in the UK, Netherlands and Germany.

Marketing Argyll & The Isles

DELIVERING FOR ARGYLL & THE ISLES

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DELIVERING FOR ARGYLL & THE ISLES

SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL CONTENTVisitScotland provides inspiration and information to hundreds of thousands of potential customers across our online social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The launch of our #ScotSpirit campaign has encouraged visitors and locals alike to upload inspirational images of Scotland and Argyll & The Isles which in turn are being shared far and wide.

Argyll & The Isles posts across all VisitScotland social media channels led to more than 720,000 likes, shares, retweets and comments between April and September 2016.

The top post with the most engagement on Facebook was a photo of Tobermory Harbour on Mull at sunset that received over 13,000 likes, comments and shares.

Additionally VisitScotland, in partnership with The Narrative agency, worked on producing one of a six part travel series commissioned by BBC Worldwide called “Mission Selfie” with prominent

YouTubers Ben Brown and Steve Booker, who have a combined audience on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter of 2 million. The theme for the Scotland episode was wildlife and the team visited the Isle of Mull as one of Scotland’s best wildlife destinations.

Looking to connect our visitors directly with our industry, Scotland’s Online Community, launched in July 2016, does just that. It is a growing platform with over 30,000 users looking for information about Argyll & The Isles.

#SCOTSPIRIT

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CONTACT US

David Adams McGilpRegional Director

07818 873256david.adams.mcgilp@visitscotland.com

Leo Plaster Industry Communications Executive

0141 5664020leo.plaster@visitscotland.com

visitscotland.com visitscotland.org

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All photographs ©VisitScotland unless otherwise stated. VisitScotland has published this report in good faith to update stakeholders on its activity. VisitScotland has taken all reasonable steps to confirm the information contained in the publication is correct. However, VisitScotland does not warrant or assume any legal liability for the accuracy of any information disclosed and accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions.