Highland and Moray Area Tourism Partnership
Minutes – 17 September, 2010 at Cowan House, Inverness
Present :
(FC) Fran Cree - North West Highland area (Vice Chair)
(SA) Scott Armstrong - VisitScotland
(JI) Julie Inglis - VisitScotland
(IF) Iain Fairweather - Federation of Small Businesses
(RM) Robert Muir – HIE
(MW) Marion Walker - Moray area
(JC) Joan Campbell - UHI Millennium Institute
(TdB) Teresa de Billot - Outdoor Capital of the UK
(JR) Councillor John Russell – The Moray Council
(SH) Sandra Hutton – Skye & Lochalsh area
(PM) Pierre Masson – The Moray Council
(GA) Graeme Ambrose - Destination Loch Ness
(AR) Alan Rankin - Cairngorms Business Partnership
(IanM) Ian Mitchell – SNH
(CR) Claudia Rowse - SNH
(ME) Maren Ebling - SNH
(RP) Robbie Parish – VisitScotland
Apologies :
(CS) Colin Simpson – The Highland Council
(CT) Chris Taylor – HIE
(IR) Councillor Ian Ross - The Highland Council
(IM) Councillor Isobel McCallum – The Highland Council
(JM) Jack Mackay - Forestry Commission Scotland
(FW) Fiona Williams - Inverness College UHI
(FM) Fiona Milligan - Cairngorms National Park Authority
(SS) Shirley Spear - Scottish Tourism Forum
(ML) Murray Lamont - North East Highland area
(JillM) Jill McNicol - North East Highland area
(CB) Chris Bremner - Cairngorms National Park Authority
1 Welcome and Apologies:
FC welcomed everyone to the meeting. There were a few new faces at the meeting so Fran
introduced Alan Rankin from Cairngorm Business Partnership who has replaced Andrew Kirk and
Graeme Ambrose from Destination Loch Ness who has replaced Mike Dunthorne. She also
introduced Claudia Rowse from SHN and Robbie Parish from VisitScotland both of whom were
presenting to the meeting. Maran Ebling from SHN also joined the meeting.
Apologies are noted above.
Fiona Milligan from CNPA informed the group via email that Chris Bremner will be the contact for
future meetings and from the middle of October John Thorne will be leading on sustainable
tourism, when Heather Trench returns from maternity leave she’ll be taking on the branding work.
Fiona Williams from Inverness College UHI sent apologies as she was attending a graduation
ceremony. Via email she asked for the group to be informed that 20 students from the National
Certificate Travel & Tourism course would be looking for industry placements. The students are
required to carry out 2 blocks of placement, the first an orientation placement during the quieter
period, with a view to them returning in April (as the season begins) equipped with the induction
knowledge and that which they have studied throughout their college programme.
Dates:
Monday 25/10/10 x 2 wks return to college on Monday 08/11/10
Monday 04/04/11 x 6 wks return to college on monday 30/05/11 (inc 2 x wks Easter break time negotiable)
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The students are most interested in Tourist Attractions, the airport and travel agents - if anyone
needs more information or wants to offer a placement opportunity please contact Amanda
Stewart, Curriculum Co-ordinator on 01463 273532 / email amanda.stewart@inverness.uhi.ac.uk
Minutes of Previous Meeting:
Minutes were proposed by JC and seconded by IF.
Matters Arising:
Barriers to Growth report was issued to ATP on 16 Sept 2010.
BS has now left UHI so it was agreed to invite someone from Skills Development Scotland to a
future ATP to present on what they are doing throughout the Highlands and Moray - in the
hope to give the group a better overview of skills development in the region.
Action
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Information on setting up a DMO is available on the Tourism Intelligence Scotland website
however there was some discussion on the fact this seems like it is going to withdrawn later
this month. SA will contact Julie Franchitti at Scottish Enterprise for an update on the status of
these guidelines.
Nominations for Chairperson
As there were no nominations prior to the meeting and there are a couple of new members on the
group it was decided to defer the decision on a new Chairperson until the next meeting.
Nominations are kindly invited in advance of that meeting - please email suggestions to JI.
VisitScotland.com presentation - Robbie Parish
SA gave a short introduction to RP who then gave a full presentation on VisitScotland’s digital
strategy 2010-2014. This strategy has had sign off from VisitScotland’s Board and also from the
Scottish Government and implementation has begun. The presentation will be circulated in due
course.
Currently VisitScotland has 116 websites with lots of different and isolated information - this needs
to be streamlined with a central database created. There is also currently no mobile phone
platform but the new development will allow for this. Currently there is limited feed in from the
analytics systems to the CRM so a full understanding of the user behaviour and customer journey
is not available - again the new developments will overcome this giving a much more rounded
picture. The new VS.com will also include geomapping to enrich the customer experience. The
current accommodation system is outdated and VisitScotland plan to introduce their own user
generated content (UGC).
The new strategy aims to develop a world class tourism website - VS.com will not be recreating
what is already there but adding value e.g. content will be drawn from excellent industry websites
such as Glentress etc.
The new accommodation site will also enrich user experience by making suggestions for
restaurants, events etc encouraging cross selling and up selling. An extranet will be created which
will be updated by industry, DMOs etc. This will incorporate all accommodation regardless of the
relationship with VisitScotland so customers have a one stop shop to compare and review all
available accommodation.
This is 2 ½ year project so the changes are not going to happen overnight. This is a fundamental
part of VisitScotland strategy going forward and hopes to enhance the organisations reputation
with industry.
There will be an opportunity to share data and share web pages that have been created on VS.com
so businesses, groups and destinations will not have to recreate their own sites but can feed
information from VS.com which has 12.7 million unique visitors and 110 million page views per
year.
RP is creating a document on how information should be captured and held so all can feed into
one central database - RP will issue when available.
AR asked about the plethora of booking engines - RP suggested this new system should be able to
pull them all together - there is currently no system that can do that.
FC asked about industry buy in - RP and his team plan to present to ATPs, hold industry session,
workshops etc. JC cautioned to learn lessons from the recent QA pilot which has since been
shelved due to lack of buy in.
RM asked about good examples of websites currently - RP suggested New Zealand and Australia
from a destination point of view and Sweden has good geomapping. However the best is Amazon.
The group recommended Walkhighlands as a good example - RP will review.
RP said this was an agile approach to development and the strategy would evolve as technology
moved on.
Scottish Natural Heritage presentation - Claudia Rowse
CR heads up a small national team which deals with tourism and food & drink amongst other
things. Maren Ebling who also joined the meeting is in this team and is the National Tourism
Officer. CR’s presentation is attached with these minutes.
CR explained that many tourism projects are delivered on a local level by officers such as IM.
These local officers also comment and advise on tourism development funding applications
through SRDP and Leader so play an important role.
The SNH board consider their work on tourism a strategic priority - indeed a recent board paper
http://www.snh.org.uk/data/boards_and_committees/main_board_papers/2010Apr20/NBTReviewSNHsFocus.pdf highlights the support for Nature Based Tourism.
SNH is trying to work more closely with the national Trust for Scotland and Historic Scotland to
link the natural heritage with cultural and historic assets. SNH also recently worked on two large
joint campaigns with VisitScotland - Winter White 2009/10 and Perfect Day 2010.
SNH can provide some funding for tourism projects e.g. Heritage Paths and Nature Based Tourism
work in the Outer Hebrides.
SNH is involved in the responsible visitor guide and its Scotland wide distribution. SNH also gets
involved in some events e.g. Arran Wildlife Fest which has been a great success since started by
SA
ALL
RP
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SNH and now run by VisitArran. They are also planning to work in Caithness and Sutherland on a
Wild North event.
SNH has recently developed a suite of leaflets entitled ‘Explore for a Day’ which includes
itineraries and suggestions for visitors - there will be one for the North Highlands.
SNH also produce a free quarterly magazine, ‘The Nature of Scotland’, which is very popular.
FC queried about avoiding duplication of effort by highlighting a nature leaflet produced by The
Highland Council. CR said SNH try to avoid this where possible by attending ATPs and
involvement in a variety of groups so everyone knows who is doing what and how value can be
added rather than duplication of effort - however she was unaware of the Council leaflet. She also
highlighted that the SNH board travel around the country for their meetings which the public can
attend. CR said she was happy for people to contact the team directly for advice and support for
nature based tourism projects etc.
Many members of the ATP highlighted projects they have been involved in with SNH and praised
the organisation for its partnership working.
Any other Business
Bottlenose Dolphin Report
This is due to be launched in Cullen on 4 October - JI will send out link to report when available.
Visitor Survey
SA highlighted information in Action Plan update provided by CS. A couple of people suggested it
may be useful to add questions to this research if possible - JI to check with CS
ATP Action Plan Update 2011-12
As the current ATP Action Plan runs until the end of 2010 it was suggested a sub group meet to
discuss items for an updated plan going forward for 2011-12. The subgroup will consist of
members: RM (HIE) / CS (THC) / SA (VS) / AR (CBP) / GA (DLN) - the subgroup will meet prior to the
next ATP. The Action Plan will be the main agenda item for the December ATP.
Business Gateway / SDS presentation
As per matters arising it was agreed a presentation from SDS at a future ATP meeting would be
beneficial. The Highland Council plan to include information on Business Gateway in their Tourism
Seminar so it may tie in with the next ATP.
Future Agenda Items
Members were asked to send JI any suggested agenda items for future ATPs to ensure all relevant
issues were discussed at meetings
VisitScotland Sustainability Workshops
Workshops in Fort William (28 Sept), Aviemore (29 Sept) and Elgin (7 Oct) were highlighted.
Adventure Travel World Summit
AR highlighted this event taking place in Aviemore from 4 October. There are currently 521
delegates registered to attend. This has given tourism operators in Aviemore a great opportunity
to work with High Street retailers to provide packages for delegates. All agreed this was a very
important event for the whole of Scotland.
Doors Open Days
JR highlighted that as part of Doors Open Day Gordonstoun School was going to be open to the
public on 25 September from 2-5pm - this is a very rare opportunity to see a magnificent building.
See website www.doorsopendays.org.uk
Highland Council Tourism Seminar
Following last year’s event there was talk of the opportunity to VC into the event in 2010 - is this
possible?
Ambitions
JI highlighted that VisitScotland’s latest edition of Ambitions magazine had just been published - if
anyone wants to join the mailing list they should let JI know.
Dates and venues for 2010 / 2011 meetings:
9 December 2010, 2-4pm (following Tourism Seminar) - Highland Council HQ, Inverness
11 March 2011 - The Highland Archive Centre, Inverness
27 May 2011 - Cowan House, Inverness
16 September 2011 - Great Glen House, Inverness
TBC to coincide with THC Tourism Seminar
JI
JI / CS
RM/CS
SA/AR
GA
ALL
CS