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Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 02/02/2024

Caroline Warburton, Destination Development Director

I’m delighted to share our first Fife Regional Update of 2024. This update highlights some of the ways we’ve promoted Fife across our channels over the last six months, and how we support the industry with news and opportunities.

Every year brings its opportunities, and looking into 2024, we have opening of the much-anticipated railway line to Leven, the 750th anniversary of Robert the Bruce and Knockhill Race Circuit celebrating 50 years too. Opportunities such as these provide excellent opportunities for us to shine a spotlight on Fife and ensure that visitors – new and returning – have Fife on their holiday map.

We work closely with the Welcome to Fife team at Fife Council, local tourism associations and other partners in the region to help share your news nationally and national opportunities locally, so tourism businesses do not miss out. To make sure that you’re in the know, subscribe to our e-newsletter or connect via LinkedIn.

The place to be this month is at the Fife Tourism Conference in Kirkcaldy. Delivered by the Welcome to Fife team on behalf of the industry, there’s a great line-up of speakers as well as plenty of time to meet new people. There are details at the end of this update. See you there! 

Caroline

Marketing Fife

  • New Fife blogs

    Check out some of our new and refreshed blogs on visitscotland.com featuring The Kingdom of Fife:

  • Email marketing

    Fife continues to feature within our email programme to over one million global contacts, across 15 markets and five languages. Each email is designed with seasonality and geographic spread in mind, while promoting responsible tourism. 

    Some recent enewsletters have featured information on St Andrews Day, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, ideas for dining featuring the Peat Inn, and ideas for rainy days featuring Deep Sea World. 

    Our emails have included images of Dunfermline, Anstruther, Kingarrock Hickory Golf and Cambo Gardens.

  • Fife promoted in partnership with Expedia

    Fife is being promoted to UK travellers as part of a campaign with Expedia running until this month.  

    Dunfermline features within a dedicated Scotland webpage on Expedia.co.uk and Hotels.com to inspire visits to the region including travel, accommodation and experiences. 

    In the US, Fife also features as part of the Scotland Expedia landing page.

  • Working with Fife Council

    Funded by Fife Council, we ran a social campaign in November promoting short stays themed around coast verses cities and targetted at retirees in Scotland and North England. Activity included image adverts of Dunfermline Abbey, Abbot House, The Peat Inn and The Inn at Lathones. This activtiy resulted in over 13,000 visits to the landing webpage - welcometofife.com.

Scotland’s UNESCO Trail

Following our Scotland UNESCO trail marketing campaign in October 2022, which features Fife, a series of webinars took place over summer / autumn with Scottish Government, designation site representations and the UK UNESCO Commission to present the results of this activity.

We also presented to a meeting of the Nordic UNESCO delegates who were keen to learn more about the development and success of the trail. Our insights team are continuing work on an economic impact report which will be published in 2024.

The campaign has now been completed, you can read the full news article, and we've pulled together the key highlights below.

UNESCO Trail logo

"Blam to the max" days out in Fife

Fife featured in our recent marketing activity with ScotRail and the Beano to promote sustainable days out for all the family.

  • Aberdour and Fife Coastal Path featured in Edinburgh Live. 
  • Dunfermline featured in print and online for both The Scottish Daily Express and The Daily Record, and on digital display ads. 

All this promotional activity was designed to captivate our family audience and signpost to a dedicated webpage on visitscotland.com.

Beano Characters in Dunfermline

Fife on social

4.66 million

Number of times Fife content reached people on their social channels

+424,000 engagements

Reactions, likes, comments, shares and saves of Fife posts

Reach of +348,000

Top performing post by reach on Instagram was of Martha the Highland Cow

Fife PR coverage

Our Global PR team works to promote Fife and Scotland across key travel and lifestyle media. In the last six months the team have shared information and press releases to more than 2,500 media contacts in the UK, North America, Germany, France, China, Australia and the UAE.

The team pitch ideas to media contacts throughout the year, handle enquiries and requests from global media, and attend events such as the World Travel Market in London. 

The team also host press visits across Scotland to generate coverage that truly reflects all the country has to offer.

Fife "in the news" highlights

  • We created a pitch around beaches in Scotland to visit over the summer, which included Tentsmuir Beach in Fife and The HideAway at Cambo as a local place to stay. Coverage featured Tentsmuir in the Mail online (reach: 24.9 million). 
  • Around the release of the new Barbie film, we compiled a list of pink places to visit in Scotland which included Abbot House in Dunfermline as well as Pittenweem. Coverage appeared in the Sunday Post, the Daily Record online, as well as video content on the YouTube Channel of the Daily Record (with over 45,000 subscribers). 

  •  The Dundonald Guest House & Cottage in Culross appeared in an article for budget-conscious travellers in I newspaper,  print and online. Take a look.

  • We supported the editor of The Points Guy with itinerary ideas and suggestions for a road trip to Fife. The resulting article highlighted how easy and pleasant it is to drive from Edinburgh to Fife and showcased St Andrews as a golf destination. The Points Guy publishes travel advice and how to maximise any trip.  

  • In October, Scotland featured in Condé Nast Traveler in a roundup of where The Crown TV show was filmed. The Scotland element focused on St Andrews, particularly St Andrews University, and highlighted its historic golf course and beautiful beaches, its foodie opportunities and further TV links in Chariots of Fire.  Condé Nast Traveler is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine with a digital reach of over 5,000,000 unique views per month. 

  • And again, in November, the Condé Nast Traveler featured a roundup of the 16 best hotels in Scotland, which included Rusacks St Andrews in the list. The feature highlights the hotel as the ideal accommodation for golf enthusiasts as well as those interested in history, with visitors able to visit the St Andrews Cathedral, harbour, and pier. 

  • Press trip activity for a luxury magazine included The Peat Inn with the journalist exploring St Andrews, Crail, Anstruther, Pittenweem and Elie. This feature is expected to publish in spring 2024. 

  • Brigitte, Germany’s most widely read women’s magazine, published a fantastic multi-page spread on Scotland at the end of 2023 as a result of a trip the PR team worked on in 2022. The article features the driving range in St Andrews – with a round of golf there being described as a must-do activity on a trip to Scotland. 

  • We supported German women’s magazine Frau von Heute with suggestions and images for a Scotland feature which highlighted St Andrews for its rich history. The article was also published across a range of similar women’s magazines belonging to the same group.

  • We supported the Scotland edition of Geo magazine which included an article on “The favourite places of our Scottish reporter” Mike MacEacheran. He covered The East Neuk as a food & drink hidden gem, promoting locally caught crabs, lobsters and razor clams and personally recommends the smoked langoustine roll at The Cellar in Anstruther.

  • In partnership with VisitBritain, freelancer writer Steve McKenna visited Dunfermline and Limeklins last year. Resulting coverage highlighted his visit to Scotland’s newest city exploring major attractions, Limeklins and The Ship Inn, with call-to-action to visitscotland.com. The article featured in The Sunday Times (circulation: 146,000) and The West Australian (circulation: 130,000) and online thewest.com.au (monthly unique visitors: 1.83 million). 

  • An article featuring St Andrews through the royal lens was published by Woman’s Day magazine (circulation: 320, 000) in August 2023.  The article featured St Andrews following the footsteps of Prince William and Kate, and included St Andrews University, Hotel du Vin, St Andrews Castle and Cathedral, West Port Bar and Kitchen and St Andrews West Sands. 

  • Australian journalist, Melissa Mason, commissioned by Pedestrian TV (monthly audience 1.3 million) visited Fife in October 2023 on an Outlander themed story, coverage expected early 2024. 

  • South China Morning Post published an article in August featuring The Gleneagles Hotel, outdoor experiences including falconry, fine dining with fresh local produce, golf and surrounding scenery.

  • St Andrews featured in a print article published by Al Khaleej (circulation: 115,000) in September and highlighted the town’s coastline, castles and golf.

  •  Condé Nast - Traveller Middle East published an online article in September on the best places to visit in Scotland, which included Fife. The article highlighted the regions coastal treasures, castles, villages in East Neuk, golf in St Andrews and the culinary delights in the region.

Take a look at our selection of news coverage in the gallery following.

Corporate PR for Fife

  • As part of the Scottish Thistle Awards programme for 2023, we announced businesses shortlisted in the Central & East Thistle Awards in July and then revealed the winners at the regional final in September, which included Lindores Stay, Ride, Relax and the Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa in Fife.  
  • In September, we announced the return of our successful travel trade event – Connect – in April 2024 and issued a regional media release encouraging local businesses to sign up. 
  • In November, we issued a media release on activity with Welcome to Fife to promote Fife as a short break destination which appeared in the Dunfermline Advertiser.  

View our media toolkit on VisitScotland.org for all press releases.

Hear from our iCentre team

In September the iCentre team welcomed a giant Scottie sculpture into the iCentre as part of Scotties by the Sea – a large-scale public art trail in St Andrews and the Northeast Fife Coastal Community.

Our dug the Flea Circus Scottie, attracted visits from actual Scottie dogs as owners joined the trail with their dogs. After 10 weeks in the iCentre, our sculpture sold at auction for £5000, with proceeds going to Maggie’s and the Clean and Green Team St Andrews.

Visitors to the iCentre in St Andrews were greeted by Fairy Mary Doll and stepsisters Windolene and Harpic from the local pantomime Cinderella in November. The cast joined a tasting event at the iCentre, hosted by the team, which coincided with the St Andrew's Day celebrations and attracted more visitors along. Exhibitors taking part included Rumburra, Pilgrims Gin, Eden Mill, the Byre Theatre and RSPB.

Travel trade - Fife

Our intermediary marketing teams undertake an extensive annual programme of activity. This allows us to take Scotland to the world in collaboration with our network of global tour operators and travel agents.

Take a look at some of the highlights from the last six months. 

  • Two new suppliers from Fife - Bowbridge Alpacas Scotland and Wild Scottish Sauna - were added to our travel trade website.
  • In October Scotland's Tay Country was spotlighted within our travel trade enewsletter and mentioned Rusacks St Andrews, Ardross Farm, and a Fife itinerary. 

  • Six local businesses from Fife joined a staff product presentation webinar. Thank you to all the invited speakers who shared their business journey with us: Eden Mill Distillery,Teasses Estate, Wild Scottish Sauna, Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum, Courses for Cooks and Bowbridge Alpacas.

The Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum Dunfermline Credit VisitScotland Kenny Lam

Fife Tourism Conference

With the theme of "Developing New Markets", the Fife Tourism Conference will take place on Tuesday 27 February in the newly redeveloped Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy.

The day will consist of networking opportunities and presentations on the topics of digital innovation, working with online travel agents, developing your travel trade offering, and sustainability in the visitor economy. There will also be a "Pecha Kucha" style session with presentations covering different aspects of the local tourism sector.

Tickets remain at the 2022 price of £25 per person and includes lunch.

Get your ticket

Poster for the Fife Tourism Conference

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