VisitScotland

Its been almost a week since our national winners took home their Scottish Thistle Awards. Support for our winners and finalists has been incredible - posts have been inspiring and truly deserving of everyone's achievements.   Bringing the memory of the night back, we've pulled together a short video, to sum up the evening in all its triumph. Bravo 👏 Hannah Cochrane, Loch Ness Hub & Travel, Kabn, Apex Hotels, Emma Clark, Russell Fraser, The Scotch Whisky Experience, Nevis Range Development Company Ltd, Glasgow Science Centre, Dundonald Castle & Visitor Centre, Glasgow Life, EICC, Camera Obscura & World of Illusions, Trump Turnberry, Kat Brogan

Read our latest blog from our Chief Executive, Vicki Miller, as she shares how we're planning to drive the visitor economy and grow it's value to Scotland. This includes how we'll expand Scotland's share in the global market, help our businesses and events to thrive, create vibrant and welcoming destinations, plus more.

And here they are! 🎉 Congratulations to all our national final winners for the Scottish Thistle Awards 2024. What an incredibly tough job this year’s judges had. Our winners and finalists demonstrate exactly why Scotland is a must-visit destination with unbeatable visitor experiences.  Find out who took home the national trophies by heading over to our website (link in comments).  Images credit: Carlo Paloni

Tomorrow marks the end of Droughtlander as #Outlander returns to our screens. Follow Claire and Jamie as their next chapter takes them home to #Scotland. It’s ten years since Outlander premiered in the USA and according to our visitor survey it’s the most popular TV influence for visitors to Scotland, peaking interest on visitscotland.com, and with Outlander related experiences. We’ve also seen a record rise in North American visitors to Scotland since its broadcast. Will you be watching?👀 #SetInScotland (Top image, left to right) all 📸VisitScotland / Kenny Lam Blackness Castle, Linlithgow Falkland Bruce Fountain, Fife The Signet Library, Edinburgh

Have you herd the udderly amazing moos (ahem, news!)? #Coosday is celebrating its tenth anniversary. 👉 Read the full story - https://lnkd.in/e5Gkd7uq Martha the Highland Coo from Clover Cottage near Crail in Fife 📸 John Murray.

The countdown is on! This Thursday is the national final of our Scottish Thistle Awards 2024 and we can’t wait to find out who’ll be taking home the national trophies. Good luck to all the finalists! #ThistleAwards 

It's just over three years since COP26 was held in Glasgow, which resulted in the Glasgow Declaration for Climate Action in Tourism. In this latest blog, our Net Zero Tourism Manager, Tiomóid Foley, reflects on what we’ve achieved since signing the declaration and how we’re supporting industry to navigate the journey to net zero.

This Scottish Careers Week, we asked some of our Scottish Thistle Award Rising Star finalists how they got into tourism and what they think of it as a career. Hear from Hannah Cochrane, Aedan Doig, Thania Meneses Flores and Annika Schneider in our latest article (link in comments)   #ShapeTheFuture

It’s #PurpleTuesday! Making Scotland an inclusive and accessible destination – catering for those with physical and hidden disabilities, families, and the elderly – is one of our national priorities. It’s an incredibly valuable market for Scotland, 1.3 billion people live with some form of disability, representing 17% of the world’s population. That’s why we are encouraging businesses to do at least one thing over the next 12 months to improve accessibility: ☑ Improve customer service – we have staff training courses available through our partnerships with leading accessible organisations, AccessAble and PurpleTuesday. ☑ Improve accessible features – from making changes to on-site facilities to creating a detailed access guide. The Scotch Whisky Experience and Archerfield Walled Garden are doing great work in accessibility. The Scotch Whisky Experience ✔ They have enhanced their existing written access statement by creating a video access guide. ✔ Through a partnership with Deaf Action Scotland, added International Sign to their most popular tour, in addition to BSL, ASL and 18 international languages. ✔ Created a front-line team of accessibility ambassadors who can help recommend ongoing improvements based on real-time customer feedback. Archerfield Walled Garden ✔ Improved parking and access with four bays for blue badge holders close to the main entrance gates and a newly resurfaced car park. ✔ Their friendly staff are always on hand to help those who acquire assistance. ✔ Wide doorways and good spacing between café tables and in-store displays allows ease of access What will you do?

We caught up with Patrick O'Shaughnessy, our Industry Manager (Development) who'll be speaking at this years Arival Activate - a major event aimed at the tourism experiences sector. Find out what attendees can expect from this two day conference, which now includes one-day tickets. Full Q&A with Patrick - https://lnkd.in/eRn_-YSi