Case study | Newton Farm Holidays and Tours
Newton Farm Holidays and Tours is situated on a tenanted farm of 550 acres on Fotheringham estate in Angus.
The farm began to offer B&B in 2006 and their self-catering cottage in 2009 and since 2017 has begun to deliver interactive agritourism tours.
Run by Graeme and Louise Nicoll, Graeme primarily focuses on the farm whilst Louise runs their leisure offers. Her singular passion is to educate local and those farther beyond about the journey of farm to fork.
From the outset, Louise realised that running her accommodation and her experience product using digital technology would be crucial.
So, using digital to distribute her products to make her life more manageable and marketing more efficient was key.
Louise ensured her accommodation and farm tours were listed on free tourism directories. These were VisitScotland.com and VisitAngus.com. It was one of the first practical steps she got in place.
Always open to learning, she also made use of the support available from VisitScotland & Business Gateway.
Louise also had a digital review from her local VisitScotland Industry Relationship Manager. This further highlighted to her the need to utilise an experience specific booking platform.
With it, she managed the demand for her tours, especially as initially she was delivering the tours, marketing them and taking the bookings.
Louise was advised to go to VisitScotland’s Experience booking solution conference Ctrl+Alt+Succeed. There, she met as many of the booking solutions providers as possible.
Over a year she whittled these down to her preferred provider.