Delivering for Dundee & Angus How we re working to grow the visitor economy 1
Introduction Dundee & Angus generates 80 million in visitor spend and supports 9,400 jobs tourism is more than a holiday experience; it creates jobs and sustains communities all year round. Scotland is an inclusive and welcoming tourism destination that punches above its weight on the world stage and we need to leverage this reputation to bring new investment, new events, new airlines and new visitors. Tourism is more than a holiday experience; it creates jobs and sustains communities all year round. The number of people working in tourism in Dundee & Angus rose by 16% between 2014 and 2015. Dundee & Angus has a huge part to play; with the power of the V&A Museum of Design Dundee, the waterfront development, a new air route to Amsterdam, a strong business tourism proposition and the Declaration of Arbroath being awarded Memory of the World UNESCO status. This status is just one of many connections that will spotlight the region in celebration of the 2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology. It s vital that we harness these opportunities and work together to deliver for Dundee & Angus. Jim Clarkson, Regional Partnerships Director, VisitScotland 1
Key stats for Dundee & Angus 1.1 billion estimated in investment that will impact the tourism industry in Dundee & Angus and enhance the quality of the visitor experience over the next three years, as outlined by the National Tourism Development Framework Almost 40 million opportunities for consumers to see or hear about Dundee & Angus through our global PR activity in 2015/16 The number of people working in tourism in Dundee & Angus has risen by 16% between 2014 and 2015* Over 2 million opportunities for people to see or hear about Angus through the 2015/16 regional marketing campaign Over 20 million views of our Spirit of Scotland short films which included The Angus Glens Over 32,000 invested by VisitScotland in 2015/16 to support local events Nearly 89,000 searches involving Dundee & Angus were made on visitscotland.com in 2015/16 Dundee & Angus led posts across all VisitScotland social media channels generated more than 104,513 likes, shares, retweets and comments between April September 2016 Over 300 pieces of Dundee & Angus corporate coverage within local newspapers, an average of five per week Over 14,000 referrals to businesses in Dundee & Angus from visitscotland.com in 2015/16 Footnote: *Tourism Employment in Scotland 2015. 2
Developing tourism across Dundee & Angus VisitScotland makes a difference by delivering economic success for Scotland on a global stage as a place to visit and invest in and by supporting a wide ranging programme of events, marketing and partnership projects. STRATEGIC ACTIVITY VisitScotland has been investing significant resource to support the national strategy: Tourism Scotland 2020 with the vision to become a destination of first choice by 2020. VisitScotland makes a difference by supporting a wide ranging programme of events, marketing and partnership projects. Activity in Dundee & Angus includes; the innovation and digitisation of tourism, through our partnership with Digital Tourism Scotland and direct business support; internationalisation through discounted trade missions, VisitScotland expo, and global marketing opportunities as part of our #ScotSpirit campaign. Our activity also involves encouraging investment in the region, with a focus on inclusive growth, in collaboration with businesses and our partners. 3
INDUSTRY SUPPORT VisitScotland sells Scotland with Scotland, which ultimately means working together and supporting the tourism industry to market our country to the world. In Dundee & Angus over 330 businesses are currently engaged with VisitScotland s opportunities, with many benefiting indirectly. Quality is crucial to our future success and needs to be at the forefront of all that we do to ensure competitive advantage. Our Quality Assurance (QA) Scheme has been operating for more than 30 years and is now one of the best in the world. Over 180 businesses in Dundee & Angus are committed to the scheme. Our support also includes a range of Welcome Schemes and promotional opportunities spanning online, marketing campaigns, icentre activity, international events and Travel Trade business missions and more. One of our most powerful assets is our people; our Industry Relationship Managers, Liz Shorthouse and Dennis McFarlane provide tailored support and advice to businesses across Dundee & Angus. You can contact Liz for Dundee on liz.shorthouse@visitscotland.com or 01738 450616 or Dennis for Angus on dennis.mcfarlane@visitscotland.com or 01224 269188. 4
Marketing for Dundee & Angus GLOBAL CAMPAIGNS VisitScotland launched its first ever global campaign the Spirit of Scotland in February 2016, with one message and jaw-dropping visuals running through all activity. Dundee & Angus has featured across the campaign in film, print and digital advertising, direct mail packs and more across the UK, US, Germany and France. This campaign invites everyone to get involved and share their #ScotSpirit in order to help generate more visits and grow the visitor economy. There have been more than 400,000 shares of #ScotSpirit and more than 65 million views of the online campaign films. REGIONAL CAMPAIGNS Angus Council teamed up with VisitScotland to deliver regional spring 2016 activity with various touch points including digital and press promotion. As a result, we generated the opportunity for over 2 million people to see our messaging, a further 11,000 web visits, over 5,000 competition entries and over 800 business referrals. From penguin selfies to browsing an impressive Scottish art collection, Dundee features as one of seven cities filmed in a visually stunning snapshot of the area, also as part of our Spirit of Scotland activity. Targeting thousands of visitors across the globe, the films have generated over 34,000 views. OOR WULLIE 2016 #BUCKETRAIL Tying in with both, our global campaign and the 2016 Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design, VisitScotland commissioned a ScotSpirit Wullie as part of the Oor Wullie 2016 #bucketrail. Launched in late June, 70 giant Oor Wullie sculptures were displayed across Dundee while 15 touring Oor Wullies, which included our very own ScotSpirit Wullie, spent 10 weeks visiting cities across Scotland. More than 70,000 locals and visitors are estimated to have taken part during the summer, either by picking up a bucket trail map or by downloading the bucket trail app. The trail is also said to have been a contributing factor to a boost in footfall at Dundee VisitScotland icentre with an 5
increase of 15% and retail sales up by 13.5% during the duration of the bucket trail (27 June - 11 September) compared with the same period the previous year. icentre figures for July 2016 were up significantly by 34% compared with the previous year. SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONTENT VisitScotland provides inspiration and information to hundreds of thousands of potential customers across our social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. in July 2016, has been developed to connect our visitors with the industry and experts among us. Designed to provide insider information about holidaying in Scotland, we have seen an encouraging response, with over half a million page views in its first four months. The launch of our #ScotSpirit campaign has encouraged visitors and locals alike to upload inspirational images of Scotland and Dundee & Angus which in turn are being shared far and wide. Dundee & Angus led posts across all VisitScotland social media channels generated more than 104,513 likes, shares, retweets and comments between April September 2016. ONLINE COMMUNITY Our latest digital platform Scotland s Online Community, launched 6
Sign up to our monthly industry newsletter at visitscotland.org/eupdate Follow our corporate Twitter feed @VisitScotNews Connect with us on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ visitscotland Cover photo: Oor Wullie DC Thomson & Co. Ltd. 2017 Used By Kind Permission of DC Thomson & Co. Ltd. All other photographs VisitScotland unless otherwise stated. VisitScotland has published this report in good faith to update stakeholders on its activity. VisitScotland has taken all reasonable steps to confirm the information contained in the publication is correct. However, VisitScotland does not warrant or assume any legal liability for the accuracy of any information disclosed and accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions. CONTACT US Jim Clarkson Regional Partnerships Director 07789 745825 Jim.Clarkson@visitscotland.com Laura Brown Industry Communications Executive 01738 450 611 Laura.Brown@visitscotland.com visitscotland.com visitscotland.org 7