A new tourism collaboration designed to boost the number of short breaks taken in Glasgow and Loch Lomond has been awarded £34,000 by VisitScotland.
Destination marketing organisations Love Loch Lomond and Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) have joined forces with ScotRail for a £68,000 marketing campaign, match-funded via the national tourism organisation’s Growth Fund.
Aimed primarily at potential visitors from Edinburgh and Aberdeen, the campaign plans to highlight the close proximity between the urban experiences of Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, and the beautiful scenery of Loch Lomond.
A key message is the fact that ScotRail operates a regular train service between Glasgow Queen Street and a number of train stations in the Loch Lomond area, including Balloch which has a maximum journey time of 50 minutes.
Marketing activity will also include the creation of a website landing pages and a short film as well as radio, online and press advertisements.
The money will also be used to host press trips and to allow the partners group to attend Travmedia International Media Marketplace in London – a showpiece media event for the travel trade.
Karen Donnelly, Manager at Love Loch Lomond, added: “Love Loch Lomond is delighted to be working in partnership with GCMB and ScotRail on this exciting new Growth Fund project linking the outdoor and urban tourism product. Our focus will be to offer visitors an even greater experience by providing a wider range of activities to participate in by linking the city with the beauty and tranquillity of Loch Lomond, The Trossachs and the Clyde Sea Lochs.”
Elaine Dickie, Senior Marketing Manager at GCMB, said: “GCMB’s role is to create customers for Glasgow and having been named by travel industry bible National Geographic Traveler as one of the 20 best destinations in the world for 2016 we know that awareness of the city, at home and overseas, is strong. Our focus now is to capitalise on that awareness. VisitScotland’s Growth Fund award will allow us to strengthen our existing partnerships with Love Loch Lomond and ScotRail and work more strategically to implement joint marketing activity that will drive increased visitor volume from our target markets over the next 12 months.”
Liz Buchanan, Regional Partnerships Director at VisitScotland, said: “Many people may not realise just how easy it is to get from the urban excitement of Glasgow to the great outdoors of Loch Lomond. The VisitScotland Growth Fund is all about encouraging Scottish tourism businesses to work together and it is great to see GCMB, Love Loch Lomond and ScotRail join forces to promote these two fabulous destinations, both of which offer unique experiences for visitors.”
Alasdair Smart, ScotRail Tourism Manager, said: “We are involved in much more than simply moving people from A to B. This initiative offers a joined-up approach to encouraging visitors to explore what Loch Lomond has to offer, and makes the train part and parcel of the entire experience.”
Find out more about the #packmorein campaign here.
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