Travel Massive Edinburgh is Local at Heart
The Travel Massive Edinburgh community enjoyed a fantastic networking evening on the roof of the Forth View Suite at The George Hotel Edinburgh on Thursday 14 July 2016. Read more
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Discover Monthly Scottish Twitter Travel Chat Scotlandhour
The Scottish Twitter travel and tourism chat Scotlandhour was founded in early 2011 by tweeter, avid traveller and proud Glaswegian Dougie Baird.
As well as spawning multiple “hour” chats on Twitter across the world, our monthly #scotlandhour chat has also had some interesting developments of its own including:
- Being the subject of a motion and debate by MSP’s and the Tourism Minister in the Scottish Parliament
- Being showcased at Social Media Week Glasgow and to tourism audiences in San Francisco and Iceland
- Teaming up with #Blogmanay to celebrate Hogmanay in Scotland
- Joining Twitter forces with the Scottish Government to celebrate St. Andrew’s Day and Robert Burns Day
The Scotlandhour core team has also experienced some changes, with new additions Glen Moyer, and Vivian Maeda joining Dougie Baird, Aileen Lamb, Lesley Judge, Mark Calpin, Fiona Drane and Sam Weston.
How does Scotlandhour work and what is it for? It’s a Twitter travel chat, dedicated exclusively to all things Scottish, and it takes place on the last Wednesday of each month, from 9-10pm GMT/BST. Each month there is a travel theme, and we crowd-source the questions which people can offer via our Twitter feed or Facebook page.
We also invite volunteer co-hosts to help us with the chat on a monthly basis, so for example if our chat is about heritage or food and drink, we’ll look for relevant organisations or those with links to those subjects.
The 6 chat questions are published on the Scotlandhour website one week before the end of the month chat, to let people prepare their answers, images and more.
To take part, prepare your answers, join in the chat, and make sure you tag your answers with #scotlandhour.
Check out the tab of themes and guest co-hosting tips if you’re interested in helping us out.
Follow us on Twitter, check out the Scotlandhour website and join us the last Wednesday of each month at 9pm.
Destination Leaders Programme Summer News
Destination Leaders Programme Scotland – Summer 2016 Updates
DLP Year 3 Graduate on 19 May 2016
Congratulations to the latest DLP 3 cohort of twenty-one Glasgow and Edinburgh industry professionals, (pictured above) who graduated from the Destination Leaders programme at Edinburgh Napier University on 19 May, with the 2015/2016 intake producing what was agreed to be an excellent round of group projects and presentations. At the time of writing, two DLP Year 3 projects have secured support for further development.
Programme leader Kenneth Wardrop said: “The standard of presentations in DLP 3 was exceptionally high. We were delighted to see a diverse range of collaborative group projects and the combination of Glasgow and Edinburgh professionals has generated valuable debate and partnership working. We are confident that this will have a significant impact on future working relationships between these two great cities.”
DLP Alumni Network Continues to Grow
The DLP alumni network continues to grow, now with 60 professionals having graduated with an Executive Certificate in Destination Leadership from Edinburgh Napier University since the initial DLP programme in 2013. Participating destinations to date have been Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Argyll and the Isles and Glasgow.
DLP Year 4 Applications Open for Aberdeenshire & Tayside
The Destination Leaders programme looks forward to its 2016/2017 intake, recruiting participants from Aberdeenshire and Tayside, and will hold a number of recruitment roadshows in June 2016. Find key dates here.
Read the full DLP newsletter or watch DLP alumni talking about their experience of the programme here.
Love Loch Lomond in Unique Collaboration to Attract New Visitors
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.
A Tourism Journey of Discovery in North Iceland
I recently returned from a week’s tourism learning journey to North Iceland, otherwise known as North Iceland Culinary Experience: Innovate, Develop, Taste! (NICE). Like the rest of my group I’m buzzing with ideas about how to share what I’ve learned with others in my industry and beyond and look forward to working on this in the coming weeks and months. Read more
Guest Blog: Destination Leadership
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
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
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.
ETAG Hosts Social Media Slam
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.
Scotland Hour 2014: A Month by Month Guide
Scottish travel and tourism Twitter chat #scotlandhour – join in on last Wednesday of every month, from 9pm – 10pm GMT. Read more
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