Press release -
New Nessie campaign to inspire more international tourists to visit Inverness & Loch Ness
A set of ‘tips’ to help monster hunters track down Loch Ness’ most famous resident, the Loch Ness Monster, is at the heart of a new campaign to inspire international visitors to book a trip to Inverness and Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands outside the busy summer months.
The Inverness Loch Ness digital marketing campaign, run by national tourism agency VisitBritain, kicks off this week across three markets - the Netherlands, France and the US. The three-week campaign, part of a longer-term plan to drive international tourism to the area, uses a series of visual ‘tips for monster hunting’ to highlight the amazing experiences, culture and countryside on offer in the Inverness and Loch Ness area.
One ‘tip’ encourages visitors to ‘build up your courage’ by visiting the Glen Ord whisky distillery, another recommends that monster hunters ‘step into camouflage’ by donning a Scottish kilt and hiding out at The Dores Inn, Inverness, while another advises hunters to ‘patrol the area’ by taking to a kayak on Loch Beinn a’ Mheadhoin.
VisitBritain Director of Marketing Joss Croft said:
“The Loch Ness and Inverness area is a fantastic destination to be enjoyed all year round. From exploring the majestic lochs and soaring highlands to soaking up the atmosphere of the cosy pubs and traditional inns, we want to inspire visitors to book a trip and come and visit right now so the economic benefits of tourism are spread throughout more of the year.”
VisitInvernessLochNess Chief Executive Graeme Ambrose said:
“Drawing inspiration from the enduring appeal of the Loch Ness Monster is a great way of showing just how much our area has to offer to international visitors at different times of the year, and we hope it will encourage more people to come and experience this fantastic place for themselves.”
VisitScotland Chief Executive Malcolm Roughead said:
“The Inverness Loch Ness campaign complements our recently launched Spirit of Scotland creative campaign using powerful landscape imagery and friendly locals as reasons to visit. It’s great to be working on this project with VisitBritain and VisitInvernessLochNess to help businesses extend their season and we hope it will encourage more visitors to experience this area outside peak times, sustaining jobs and communities.”
This phase of the campaign in the Netherlands, France and the US runs until the end of March with another digital marketing push due to get underway later this year. The area is also being regularly promoted overseas through visits by international media and travel buyers and with local businesses and destination partners attending international trade events.
The Inverness Loch Ness campaign, which has been developed with input from the Scottish national tourist agency VisitScotland and locally by VisitInvernessLochNess, is part of the UK Government’s GREAT Britain campaign which promotes Britain internationally, inspiring more overseas visitors to come and see for themselves what makes all its nations and regions great places to visit.
The latest figures from VisitBritain show that there were more than 260,000 international visits to Inverness in 2014, and 2.7 million visits to Scotland.
Overall, 2015 set a record for inbound tourism to Britain with 35.8m visits overall, 4% up on 2014. Comparing growth over the last five years shows that there were six million more visits in 2015 than 2010, an increase of 20%.
VisitBritain’s forecast for 2016 shows that the growth in visitor numbers is set to continue with 36.7m visits expected. Spending by overseas visitors is predicted to reach almost £23 billion this year, a 4.2% increase on spending in 2015.
This puts VisitBritain on track to realise its ambition for growing international visits to Britain by more than 20% to 42m visits by 2020, which could see an additional £4.5 billion in visitor spend.
Tourism is Britain's seventh largest export industry and third largest service sector. The industry is also a major job creator, for example every 22 additional Chinese visitors that come to Britain create an additional job in the sector. Inbound tourism is worth more than £26 billion to the UK economy.
- ENDS -
For more information please contact Tracey Edginton at VisitBritain: tracey.edginton@visitbritain.org / 020 7578 1098 or 07974 111 076
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- uk & ireland marketing
- loch ness
- corporate communications
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
- This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
- Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
- Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
- Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
- Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
- Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
- Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
- Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP.
- The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit www.gov.scot or follow @scotgovESIF
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business events in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016 - 2016 will shine a spotlight on Scotland’s achievements in innovation, architecture and design through a wide-ranging, variety of new and existing activity.
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design begins on 1 January 2016 and ends on 31 December 2016 and will build on the momentum generated by the current 2015 Year of Food and Drink as well as previous years including Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
- Through a series of exciting events and activity, the year will showcase Scotland’s position as an “innovation nation”, its outstanding built heritage, and its thriving, internationally acclaimed creative industries sector.
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, Architecture + Design Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
- Join the conversation at #IAD2016
- Events can join the 2016 Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design Partner Programme throughout the year by visiting http://www.eventscotland.org/YIAD_partner_programme
