asva marketing award

ASVA Marketing Award Open for Entries

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Scottish Visitor Attractions Encouraged to Shout about Successes

ASVA, The Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions, has opened entries to members for its annual Marketing Award and is encouraging attractions large and small across the country to apply for the award.

The prestigious marketing award, in its 10th year, celebrates excellence, innovation and creativity in marketing by Scottish visitor attractions, with past winners including Our Dynamic Earth, Stirling Castle and The Scottish Seabird Centre.

Laura Adamson, Marketing Manager of The Scottish Seabird Centre, 2014 ASVA Marketing Award Winner for its campaign ‘Puffin’tastic Fun’ said:

“Applying for an award can be a difficult process – there are not many of us who are that keen on ‘blowing our own trumpets! Winning the 2014 ASVA Marketing Award was a great boost, not only for me, but for the entire Seabird team, as our Puffin festival campaign had been a real team effort. There are the benefits of being recognised by your peers, by the industry and gaining increased exposure, but ultimately knowing that you all worked together to achieve something award-winning gives you a real sense of achievement.

Winning is brilliant, but even entering for the award is extremely worthwhile – I would highly recommend taking the time to reflect on the great job your team is doing and shouting about it.”

ASVA’s mission is: ’To support and inspire Scottish visitor attractions to deliver sustainable, world class experiences’ and the annual ASVA Awards (open to ASVA members) offer a fantastic opportunity to gain recognition not only from industry peers but from visitors, in terms of the creativity, innovation and quality of Scotland’s visitor attractions.

The closing date for award entries is 14 September 2015.

For more information on the 2015 ASVA Marketing Award email info@asva.co.uk or visit www.asva.co.uk

Glasgow Music City Tours

Glasgow Music City Tours Launching July 2015

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

These boots are made for walking….

Glasgow Music City Tours is a new tour company which offers guided walks of the city’s music venues, past and present.

Launching to the public in July 2015, the company’s tour schedule begins with four bespoke tours of the Merchant City. Part of the Merchant City Festival, all four events will culminate with a unique show from a different musical artist in Mono Café Bar.

The company is owned and run by Fiona Shepherd, Alison Stroak and Jonathan Trew. All three have extensive experience of music journalism or publishing in Scotland and see the tours as a unique opportunity to promote Glasgow’s vibrant music scene and its fascinating heritage as a music city.

The company’s knowledgeable tour guides are musicians, DJs and writers who are well placed to bring alive the stories of the legendary performers who have stayed, played and made music in the UK’s only UNESCO City of Music.

From August, the company will run two weekly tours, each lasting approximately 1.5-2 hours:

Glasgow’s Music Mile tells the tale of city centre venues from the Concert Hall to King Tut’s, via the former site of the Apollo. The tour ends at King Tut’s where guests will have the opportunity to take selfies on the stage. Takes place on Saturday afternoons.

Merchant City Music: Past and Present explores the iconic venues of the Merchant City and East End from Britannia Panopticon Music Hall to Barrowland Ballroom. Takes place on Friday afternoons.

Glasgow Music City Tours will be running press trips for both tours in July. See below for dates.

‘Glasgow is a music city through and through,’ said Jonathan Trew, director of Glasgow Music City Tours. ‘The city hosts an average of 130 different music events every week and Glasgow’s audiences and venues are famous for their passion and atmosphere.

‘Whether you remember seeing David Bowie at The Apollo, Paolo Nutini at King Tut’s or are looking forward to Texas at The Hydro, Glasgow Music City Tours offers an entertaining exploration of the places, people and performances, which have shaped the city’s musical landscape.’

Information:

Glasgow’s Music Mile press tour is on Saturday 18th July, starting at noon.

The Merchant City Music tour is on Tuesday 21st July at 2pm. Contact the team if you would like to come along.

Merchant City Festival tours: Sunday 26th, Thursday 30th, Friday 31st July and Sunday 2nd August.

www.glasgowmusiccitytours.com

Twitter: @GlasMusicTour

For more info or interviews:  Jonathan Trew M: 07803 204 563

jonathan@glasgowmusiccitytours.com

Guest Blog: Destination Leadership

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

In this guest blog, Aileen Lamb, Tourism Manager, Scottish Enterprise, talks about the activities and impact of the Destination Leaders Programme and a recent learning journey to the city of Amsterdam. 

The Destination Leaders Programme – developed by Scottish Enterprise – is a first in Europe and by May 2015 thirty eight individuals will have graduated with an Executive Certificate in Leadership awarded by Edinburgh Napier University.

The second DLP cohort, pictured above, recently spent 48 hours with senior tourism operators in Amsterdam, who shared insights on how they’ve grown their business through collaboration. We learned that our Dutch colleagues are managing peaks in demand from visitors in Amsterdam city centre with smart visitor dispersal plans. The group was keen to hear how Marketing Amsterdam (the destination organisation) has helped simplify to manage a complex range of partners delivering tourism.

Attendees from Edinburgh were pleased that the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) model for destination collaboration was identified as best practice and something which Amsterdam was learning from.

Some tips which can be applied by our Destination Leaders to help grow tourism here in Scotland included:

  • Help your residents be your advocates – “Love your city”.
  • The most powerful collaborations are built on a clear business rationale (but a social element often helps open doors too – have a beer together!).
  • Use your icons – particularly in far away markets.
  • Manage partners expectations – not every partner should equal – it’s ok to say no.

Before the group set sail on a canal tour of the city our group was hosted by ijVenues. This is an impressive, innovative new collaboration which can host 1,900 conference delegates just 5 minutes from the centre of the city.

The partners, 5 star Movenpick hotels; Passenger Terminal Amsterdam and the state owned Bimhuis (one of the world’s Top 10 live music and jazz venues) have significantly increased revenues and sales by delivering an integrated product. The hotel now reports 89% occupancy, much of this from new business tourism guests, and Movenpick will embed this collaborative model across their brand worldwide.

There was a great feeling of optimism amongst our Destination Leaders who have taken their learning on destination leadership and will be putting it into practice in their final projects and within their destinations and tourism developments in Scotland.

DLP participant Annabel Meikle of The Whisky Belle said: “What struck me is the openness of the Dutch people, the openness that they have working together in collaboration with other businesses and not seeing that as a threat. I was struck by the leadership and the trust: that the ability to trust allowed the partners to develop their businesses and so the experience that they could offer visitors was much bigger and much more valuable and enjoyable as a result.”

Aileen Lamb, Tourism Manager, Scottish Enterprise, 23rd March 2015.

Find out more about the Destination Leaders Programme course content.

Six Travel Bloggers Launch ‘Scotlanders’ Collaboration to Promote Scotland

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Six travel bloggers living in Scotland have joined forces to launch a year-round digital campaign to promote their country as a travel destination.

Douglas Baird (Baird Travels), Kay Gillespie (The Chaotic Scot), Kim Kjaerside (Kim Kjaerside Photography), Neil Robertson (Locomotion Scotland), Nicola Holland (FunkyEllas Travel) and Susanne Arbuckle (Adventures Around Scotland) make up Scotland’s first travel blogger collaboration, known collectively as Scotlanders.

Working with destinations, organisations and events across the country, the Scotlanders will create a wealth of digital content which will be promoted on their blogs and across seven social media channels to a combined following of over 30,000 people in excess of one hundred countries. Their primary objective is to inspire international and local visitors to discover the best and most unique experiences in Scotland through their stories, high quality images and short videos. Their passion for Scotland is unrivalled and evident in the expertise and travel experience they have gained over the years.

Indiviudually the Scotlanders are extensively travelled worldwide and have established successful travel blogs, working on campaigns with The Commonwealth Games, SYHA, The National Trust for Scotland, Cool Places UK, #blogmanay and Welcome to Fife.

They recognise the potential in working together to increase the impact and exposure of their content, something which is reflected in their campaign motto “Exploring Scotland Together”. The group met in Glasgow earlier this year to discuss the project and have been in regular contact in preparation for the launch.

The group’s first official project launched on Saturday 28th March in the city of Dundee. Each blogger covered a specific theme; Dundee as a tourism/cruise ship destination, culture, design, food, the outdoors, family activities; and all promoted their experiences on social media using #Scotlanders with blog articles to follow. Councillor Will Dawson and spokesperson for Dundee, One City Many Discoveries said:

“We are delighted to welcome ‘The Scotlanders’ digital media group to Dundee. This is is a great opportunity to promote Dundee and Broughty Ferry to a national and international visitor audience through six specialist travel blogs and supporting social media. These online articles will communicate the variety of unique experiences a visitor can expect to enjoy when in Dundee, encouraging new visitors to include Dundee in their travel schedules.”

Several members of the group recently participated in a campaign in Linlithgow, organised by Emma Chalmers of Mary’s Meanders. The content generated significant interest on social media and provided an insight into the likely success of future projects.

The Scotlanders envisage that they will be involved in various projects in the coming months and are already in discussions with tourism industry contacts who have noted their interest in working together.

The group are attending Visit Scotland Expo in Aberdeen on the 23rd April to promote the campaign and seek out potential opportunities.

The Scotlanders can be contacted at www.TheScotlanders.com and via social media channels to discuss potential partnerships. 

Guest Blog: Destination Leaders Learning Journey to Amsterdam

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

In this guest blog, Kenneth Wardrop, Edinburgh Institute Programme Leader for the Destination Leaders Programme at Edinburgh Napier University shares his thoughts on the recent DLP learning journey to Amsterdam.

Robert Louis Stevenson famously said: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” In this context the benefits of taking our current group of Destination Leaders Programme participants on a learning journey to Amsterdam, created the opportunity to gain an external perspective and to reflect back on the operations and competitive positioning of our destinations – Edinburgh, Argyll and the Isles and Scotland.

The visit which was hosted by Amsterdam Marketing proved inspiring. Amsterdam Marketing’s Director of Marketing, Geerte Udo, provided powerful insights in to the success of the ‘Iamsterdam’ brand and global place marketing, the value of alignment of destination messaging, the power of a shared and clear vision for the destination, strong leadership provided by Amsterdam Marketing, and the benefits of collaboration.

On the learning journey the group were also hosted by the Van Gogh Museum , a commercially dynamic and creative cultural venue, and IJVenues : ‘Amsterdam’s first Music and Conference centre’, which provided a powerful case study on the ‘value-add’ that can be achieved through product innovation and cooperation. EI staff and the DLP participants were very appreciative of the time given by tourism industry colleagues in Amsterdam in sharing their experiences and insights with the group.

Following the visit DLP participants commented that the value of the learnings and insights gained over the past 5 months of the Programme all became apparent on this learning journey.

Diane McRae, Senior Event Manager at the Royal Yacht Britannia and DLP 2014/15 Participant said: “For me a key learning point from Amsterdam is that collaboration in the city comes across strongly from the top down and the ground level up, with the destination taking the experience from this collective approach and positively moving it forward, this is something our destination can learn from.”

Kenneth Wardrop, Associate, Edinburgh Institute Programme Leader for the DLP, 22 March 2015.

Programme information:

Based on an internationally acclaimed initiative originating from Melbourne, Australia, the Destination Leaders Programme (DLP) is a unique opportunity to build a new leadership model for Scottish tourism. Participants play an active role in helping position Edinburgh, St. Andrews and Argyll as world leading tourism destinations. Now in it’s second year, the second programme commenced in October 2014 and by May 2015, thirty-eight indiviuals will have graduated.

The DLP pilot programme was developed in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University and delivered by the Edinburgh Institute – the commercial arm of Edinburgh Napier University’s Business School – in partnership with Scottish Enterprise.

Bumper Year for Scotland’s Visitor Attractions

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions publishes 2014 Annual Visitor Trend Report

A record number of visits were made to Scotland’s visitor attractions in 2014. Newly published research shows an increase of 6.1% on 2013.

The announcement comes as the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions (ASVA) issues the findings of its 2014 Annual Visitor Trend Report.

Analysis of statistics submitted by over 250 of the organisation’s member sites confirms that 27,141,519 visits were made to visitor attractions across Scotland in 2014, a rise of 6.1% on 2013 figures.

The number of Scottish sites attracting over 1 million visits doubled to six in 2014, compared with three in 2013.

For the fourth year, the National Museum of Scotland was the most visited attraction with 1,639,509 visits recorded (free entry). Edinburgh Castle was once again the most visited paid for attraction with 1,480,676 visits.

Sectors which fared particularly well include museums & galleries, gardens and boat trip/ marine.

Visits to the Top 20 sites rose by 9%, with these sites accounting for 54% of all visits to Scottish attractions. Edinburgh continues to dominate the marketplace, with 10 of the top 20 attractions located in the city.

Welcoming the figures, Fergus Ewing, Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism said:

“Scotland is a first class destination for Visitor Attractions, with over 27 million people visiting attractions throughout Scotland and building on the successes of Homecoming 2014, the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup.

“I’m especially pleased to see for the first time, Scotland now has 6 attractions visited by over 1 million visitors which is a fantastic achievement.

“2015 is the Year of Food and Drink and I am confident we will continue to build on the momentum created in 2014 and on the long term benefits these events bring, building a strong, high quality experience that visitors will remember and keep them returning to Scotland for many years to come.”

Glasgow sites also fared well, recording an overall increase in visitor numbers of 492,249 (14%). Anecdotal evidence from visitor attractions in the city suggests that the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games contributed significantly to the rise. During July and August, which coincided with the Games, visitor numbers to Glasgow sites increased by 283,392 (34%). It is likely that this increase in visitors to the city impacted positively on other attractions across Scotland and contributed to the overall national increase.

Commenting on the rise in visits to Glasgow attractions, Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said:

“Glasgow is a world-class city, with a world-class cultural offering. The city has a wealth of stunning architecture and ‘must see’ attractions to suit all tastes. I am delighted that five hugely popular Glasgow attractions featured in the ASVA 2014 Annual Visitor Trend Report Top 20 including, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Science Centre, the Gallery of Modern Art, People’s Palace and Winter Gardens and Riverside Museum.

“Last Summer Glasgow delivered the best ever Commonwealth Games and the city came alive during the Games as hundreds of thousands of UK and overseas visitors travelled to the city which helped contribute to the increase in visitor numbers over July and August.”

Major new attractions in Falkirk, including The Kelpies Tour, which generated over 43,000 visitors in 2014, and Helix Park, which up until September 2014 attracted 680,000 visitors, appear to have benefited tourism to the town and provided a spin-off for existing attractions such as the Falkirk Wheel, which saw visitor numbers increase by 26%.

David O’Neill, Chair of ASVA said: “It is clear that 2014 was a bumper year for the visitor attractions sector in Scotland as we reaped the benefits from Homecoming 2014 and major events including The Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup. The challenge is to build on this momentum as we move forward into 2015 and beyond”.

Media enquiries to Eva McDiarmid, Chief Executive, ASVA, Tel. 0141 229 0923, Mobile 07715 991718, E: eva@asva.co.uk

About ASVA

ASVA has over 480 member visitor attractions.

Visitor attractions in ASVA membership generate almost 5,000 Full Time Equivalent jobs for the Scottish economy.

For more on ASVA members: www.asva.co.uk

About the Visitor Trend Report 2014

The report was co-ordinated and collated by LJ Research of Edinburgh.

Scotlandhour February 2015: Events and Festivals

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

This month’s Scottish tourism and travel chat #scotlandhour celebrates Events and Festivals on Wednesday 25th February, from 9-10pm.

The questions for the February 2015 chat are:

Q1: If you were to recommend one festival to visitors, what would it be & why #ScotlandHour

Q2: What three things are essential for any trip to a festival in Scotland #ScotlandHour

Q3: Which is your favourite small festival & why #ScotlandHour

Q4: What makes Scotland’s festivals the best in the world #ScotlandHour

Q5: What festival have you enjoyed whilst abroad, and what can Scottish festivals learn from it #ScotlandHour

Q6: Share your best Scottish festivals photos #ScotlandHour

As 2015 is the Year of Food & Drink, ideas for food festivals and events or which festival serves the best types of food and drink are welcome.

The #scotlandhour team looks forward to tweeting with you on Wednesday 25th February, from 9-10pm.

Remember to add A1, A2 etc before your answers when you tweet and don’t forget the hashtag!

Find more information at www.scotlandhour.com or tweet @scotlandhour

ETAG Hosts Social Media Slam

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Improve your Digital Reach at the ETAG Social Media Slam on Thursday 26 February.

Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) is hosting a new “Social Media Slam” on Thursday 26 February where event attendees (in teams of 12, one for each month of the year) will create an Edinburgh Social and Digital Media Calendar.

The objective: to introduce businesses to others with whom they share business synergy and help increase their brand reach.

It’s set to be an entertaining session, led by the ETAG Technology presenters, where the teams will brainstorm monthly marketing campaigns, and share an Edinburgh Events Calendar along with input from Marketing Edinburgh and VisitScotland.

If you’re keen to learn about the power of the hashtag and create a marketing calendar (available to all businesses) this is a good way to start.

ETAG’s aim for 2015 is to support one another in content creation, digital reach and return on investment from social and digital marketing.

Find out more on the ETAG website.

Scotlandhour

Scotland Hour 2014: A Month by Month Guide

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

Scottish travel and tourism Twitter chat #scotlandhour – join in on last Wednesday of every month, from 9pm – 10pm GMT. Read more

Blogmanay

#Blogmanay 2013: Your Chance to Showcase Scotland to the World

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

Celebrate Winter in Edinburgh and showcase Scotland at Hogmanay by sharing your own #blogmanay experiences. Read more