Love Loch Lomond celebrates £40,200 funding boost from
VisitScotland
A tourism partnership that promotes Loch
Lomond as a year-round, must-visit destination is celebrating a
“major watershed” following a cash boost from VisitScotland.
The national tourism organisation is providing
Love Loch Lomond with £40,200 of match funding from its Growth
Fund, with the money being used for a variety of marketing
activities, including the development of seasonal micro websites
that provide a wide range of holiday offers in the area.
Scottish Enterprise is giving £15,000 to the
total project cost of £80,000.
The money will also be used to fund online and
press advertising campaigns, representation at major
travel events and maximise the growing tourism potential from
online social networking.
The award was announced by Mike Cantlay,
Chairman of VisitScotland, during a visit to Cameron House, one of
the members of the Love Loch Lomond partnership.
Mr Cantlay said: “I am delighted to announce
this VisitScotland Growth Fund award for Love Loch Lomond. Now,
more than ever, it is vital that businesses work together to boost
Scottish tourism. The partners of Love Loch Lomond are doing a
fantastic job of promoting this region and we are pleased to be
able to help their ongoing marketing campaigns with this
award.”
John Urquhart, Chairman of Love Loch Lomond,
said: “This award marks a major watershed for our fledging
organisation as it will enable us to step up the scale of marketing
activity on a collaborative basis with the 112 businesses in
our membership scheme and with other partners in the travel
trade.
“We are aiming to position Loch Lomond and the
Clyde Sea Lochs area more strongly as a year-round
destination in key UK markets and, with this funding boost, we are
confident this is achievable.”
Formed last year, Love Loch Lomond is an
industry-led Destination Organisation that operates in the Loch
Lomond, Strathendrick, West Dunbartonshire and Clyde Sea Lochs
areas.
The VisitScotland Growth Fund allows
collaborating tourism businesses to apply for up to £65,000 of
funding to help market their product to its maximum potential.
It builds on the success of the European
Union-supported VisitScotland Growth Fund which distributed £1
million to tourism marketing groups in Scotland between 2008 and
2011.
The VisitScotland Growth Fund is open to
Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and industry marketing
groups. It can support groups with up to 50 per cent (from
£5,000 to £65,000) of their marketing costs to develop and deliver
new marketing activity, to help them reach new target markets,
increase visitor numbers and create an environment for visitors to
do more, spend more and stay longer.
For more information on the VisitScotland
Growth Fund, visit www.visitscotland.org/growthfund
For more information on Love Loch Lomond,
visit http://www.lovelochlomond.com/
or contact Gill Robertson on 07425 175 950 or manager@lovelochlomond.com
ENDS
For further information
contact:
Sharon Makepeace
Corporate Press Officer
VisitScotland
Tel: 01387 245 550
Mobile: 07771 981 236
sharon.makepeace@visitscotland.com
Notes to Editors
· Love Loch
Lomond has 112 members
· For
www.lovelochlomond.com
· To join
visit www.lovelochlomond.com/info/join/
- 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 has three key roles:
- To market Scotland to all parts of the world to attract
visitors
- To provide information – and inspiration – to visitors and
potential visitors so they get the best out of a visit to
Scotland
- To provide quality assurance to visitors and quality advice to
the industry and partners to help the industry meet and strive to
exceed customer expectations
- 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.
- The years between 2012 and 2014 are
Scotland’s Winning Years - From the Year of Creative Scotland,
the Olympics and Disney-Pixar’s film Brave in 2012 through
to the Commonwealth Games, The Ryder Cup and Homecoming in 2014
everyone has the chance to prosper.
- The Year of Creative Scotland began on January 1, 2012 and is a
chance to showcase, celebrate and promote Scotland’s cultural and
creative strengths on a world stage. Through a dynamic and exciting
year-long programme of activity celebrating our world-class events,
festivals, culture and heritage. More information about the
programme can be found at: www.visitscotland.com/creative
- The Year of Creative Scotland is a Scottish Government
initiative led in partnership by EventScotland, VisitScotland,
Creative Scotland and VOCAL.
- More information and resources to help businesses engage with
Year of Creative Scotland are available at www.visitscotland.org/yearofcreativescotland-toolkit
- 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
£24million for Scotland’s economy.
- Tourism employs 270,000 people in Scotland in 20,000 diverse
businesses. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to
Scotland. The industry generates £11 billion revenue annually
(including day visits). Tourism supports around 10 per cent of
employment in Scotland
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business tourism in Scotland go to
www.conventionscotland.com
- For more information on VisitScotland’s annual review please go
to www.visitscotlandannualreview.com
