Press release -
Tasting Our Best in Elgin
Staff at a Moray visitor centre based at an historical cashmere mills are celebrating after receiving a Taste Our Best Food and Drink Scheme award
Johnstons of Elgin Cashmere Visitor Centre was recently awarded the accreditation in recognition of the locally-sourced and fresh food and drink it includes on its menu.
Taste Our Best is a joint initiative between VisitScotland and the Scottish Government. Launched in 2013, the scheme is designed to recognise businesses including hotels, restaurants, cafes, takeaways, visitor attractions and B&Bs that not only offer a quality food and drink experience, but include and promote Scottish produce on their menus, to give consumers choice.
Johnstons of Elgin – a five star visitor attraction - uses local food and drink suppliers within its visitor centre coffee shop, including Lossie Seafoods Ltd, Lossie Fish Shop, Royan of Elgin butchers, Macleans Highland Bakery in Forres and Speyfruit, of Elgin.
Their menu features dishes including Lossie Seafood’s fillet of hot smoked salmon, Johnston’s ploughman with Orkney cheddar and Scottish haggis.
Results from the 2011/12 Scotland Visitor Survey highlighted that the sampling of local produce is the second highest activity undertaken by visitors when they come to Scotland.
George McNeil, Managing Director, Retail, at Johnstons of Elgin, said:
“Our Coffee Shop at Johnstons of Elgin is extremely proud to be using locally-sourced produce. The entire company operates on the principle that only the best is good enough, therefore to receive the Taste Our Best Award from VisitScotland is a great privilege.”
Scott Armstrong, Regional Director at VisitScotland, said:
“I would like to congratulate the staff at Johnstons of Elgin on receiving this award, but it comes as no surprise, as the scope of locally-sourced food featured on their respective menus really is commendable.
“We know that visitors love authentic, quality Scottish food and drink and Taste Our Best is all about taking this knowledge to the next level and really encouraging the tourism industry and businesses to recognise the real benefits of sourcing, using and promoting local and Scottish produce. We have such a rich natural larder here in Moray, with some of the best products in the world right on our doorstep.
“2015 is the Year of Scotland’s Food and Drink and we hope that all the visitors to our shores this year who are experiencing the range of truly global events across the country will also get to taste the best of Scotland.”
Funded by the Scottish Government (£450K over three years) and VisitScotland (£470K in kind) with support from Scotland Food and Drink, the Taste Our Best initiative brings together the tourism and food and drink industries.
Research has shown that visitors are willing to pay up to 15% more for food that is of Scottish or regional origin and businesses that provide local food can typically enjoy higher level sales of up to 20% per year. Visitors currently spend around £800 million per year on food and drink in Scotland and more than 70% of potential visitors to Scotland want to taste traditional dishes, regional specialities and fresh local produce.
The Taste Our Best scheme is the latest addition to VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance (QA) Schemes, which aim to drive up quality in tourism products across the country. Taste Our Best will provide businesses with an assessment of their food provision and their menu by qualified assessors, with those meeting the necessary criteria gaining the award.
For accommodation providers and visitor attractions, the assessment will take place at the same time as the main VisitScotland Quality Assurance grading, meaning that many tourism businesses that already participate in the QA Scheme will no longer have to apply and pay for a separate food and drink assessment.
Taste Our Best replaced the EatScotland food and drink QA scheme, which is being phased out.
Further details on Taste Our Best can be found at: www.visitscotland.org/quality-foodanddrink.aspx
Further information can be found at: www.johnstonscashmere.com
Caption: Johnstons of Elgin's homemade soup - a local favourite!
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Notes to Editors:
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- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation has three key roles:
- To market Scotland to all parts of the world to attract visitors
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- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- 2014 is the year Scotland welcomes the world, when it hosts the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles and more than 800 Homecoming events throughout the country.For more information on Homecoming Scotland 2014, go to www.visitscotland.com
- The VisitScotland Information Centre network is a unique face-to-face channel engaging with around five million visitors and locals each year. Everyone who uses a VisitScotland Information Centre goes on to spend an additional £5.35, generating over £24 million for Scotland’s economy.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, tourism employs 270,000 people in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the industry contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
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