VisitAberdeenshire update 16 February 2023
16 February 2023
Last week the very best of Scotland’s visitor experiences came together for the annual Thistle Awards. We extend our congratulations to the category winners from the North-east - Douneside House, Lys-na-Greyne and Wild Discovery - as well as to all the finalists from the region. It is a daily privilege for our team to work with and promote these and many more high-quality visitor experiences across the region.
In this update you will find upcoming dates for our Industry Development Programme workshops and webinars that are designed to help you develop your business skills and market knowledge to become more competitive and resilient.
I would also like to draw your attention to our new marketing opportunities initiative that provides you with a range of paid-for channels to reach thousands of engaged and enthusiastic prospective visitors.
Chris Foy
VisitAberdeenshire Industry Development Programme – upcoming workshops and webinars
We are pleased to confirm the details of upcoming in-person workshops and virtual webinars, delivered exclusively for tourism and hospitality businesses in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
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Delivered in partnership with Business Gateway, the digital marketing webinars and workshops below each come with an option for a one-to-one advice session to help you apply the learnings in your business.
Social media and website analytics
How much do you really know about how your social media activity and website are performing? Often it takes just a few simple changes to improve engagement across social media and your website, but if you don’t know what’s happening, you can’t fix it. During this 3-hour workshop with interactive sessions, you’ll learn how to develop a smart approach to online marketing that’s informed by your data. Topics covered include how to know what, where, and when your audience wants to hear from you, who’s active on which platforms, and how to use and gain the right insights from your social media platforms.
Workshop
Date: Tuesday 21 February
Time: 10am – 1pm (registration and a chance to network from 9:30am, light lunch at 1pm)
Venue: Maryculter House Hotel
Webinar
Date: Thursday 23 February
Time: 2pm – 5pm
Venue: Zoom
Creating engaging video content
Do you know your Reels from your TikToks and your Stories from your Shorts? In 2023, video will be even more at the heart of marketing than it was in 2022. From capturing what makes your brand special, to showcasing your location and processes and sharing the people behind the brand, video is key to getting your messages out there. This 3-hour practical workshop will cover the different types of video content and when to use them, how different platforms use video, how to capture great video and turn it into engaging content, plus free editing tools that will help make you look like a pro.
Workshop
Date: Tuesday 7 March
Time: 10am – 1pm (registration and a chance to network from 9:30am, light lunch at 1pm)
Venue: The Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen
Workshop
Date: Thursday 9 March
Time: 2pm – 5pm (registration, light lunch and a chance to network from 1:30pm)
Venue: The Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen
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Webinar: What will UK traveller attitudes and behaviours look like in 2023?
What does the ideal UK holiday look like for the domestic traveller? Where do visitors source inspiration once in destination? Hot off the press, we share new insights based on research we commissioned at the end of last year. This 1-hour webinar will answer the burning questions on the motivators and driving factors for domestic travellers in 2023.
David Edwards from Scattered Clouds turns data into practical insights, helping to inform your messaging and target the right markets. Join us for this illuminating hour to hear these latest insights on market behaviours and attitudes to UK travel for the year ahead, and what they mean for your business and the wider region.
Date: Monday 20 February 2023
Time: 11am – 12pm
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North East Adventure Tourism Workshop
In partnership with North East Adventure Tourism (NEAT), we invite you to join us for a workshop exploring opportunities for adventure tourism in North-east Scotland. The morning session will focus on climate change and we will be joined by Toposophy, who will explore opportunities and solutions to help your business respond to the climate emergency. In the afternoon, we will explore the travel trade as a way to take adventure products to market and how you can develop and sell products to travel intermediaries.
Date: Wednesday 1 March
Time: 10am - 3pm
Venue: ONE Tech Hub, Schoolhill, Aberdeen
Programme:
10am – 12pm: Session 1 – Adventure Tourism Sustainability and Climate Change Workshop for North East Adventure Tourism Businesses
12 – 12.30pm: Lunch
12:30pm – 3pm: Session 2 – Developing and selling products through the travel trade for adventure tourism businesses
You are welcome to attend the whole day or join us for just the morning or afternoon sessions. Tea, coffee, snacks and lunch will be provided for all attendees.
To read more about the content of the two workshop sessions and to register, click here
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Working with online travel agents (OTAs)
It’s increasingly important for tourism businesses to be visible and bookable online and online travel agents (OTAs) can play an important role in helping your tourism product reach potential customers. As well as providing a booking platform, many travellers use OTAs during the inspiration and planning stages. OTAs are a means of getting your product in front of a customer in their own language with familiar payment methods that give them the reassurance to book.
This webinar is designed to help you understand how to promote and sell your product through OTAs. We will be joined by Rosie Boosey, Senior Account Manager at Viator, who will talk about the benefits of working with OTAs and how you can maximise your presence on an OTA platform.
During the webinar you will hear about:
- The latest trends in customer behaviour
- How an OTA operates and why you should consider them as a route to market
- The benefits of working with OTAs
- How you can work with OTAs
The webinar is open to visitor attractions, experiences and activity providers based in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire who would like to find out more about using OTAs as a route to market.
Date: Tuesday 14 March
Time: 10am - 11.15am
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Webinar: Getting started on your sustainability journey
Did you know that 71% of travellers want to make more effort in 2023 to travel more sustainably, according to Booking.com’s 2022 Sustainable Travel Report?
With increasing numbers of visitors making sustainability a critical factor in their buying decision, it is important to consider what you can do to offer the sustainable experience that visitors seek. In addition, many of the steps that you may take to help protect our planet, can also help you reduce your business costs.
In this webinar you will hear from sustainable tourism accreditation provider, Green Tourism, with practical hints and tips on how you can get started, or make further progress on your sustainability journey.
During the webinar you will learn how to:
- Create a baseline measure of your sustainability practices
- Establish an improvement framework
- Get your team involved
- Set up an action plan
Date: Thursday 2 March
Time: 11am – 12pm
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Webinar: Introduction to carbon and calculating your business’ carbon footprint
Managing your carbon footprint more effectively can be better not just for the planet, but also for your bottom line.
In this webinar we will be joined by sustainable tourism accreditation provider, Green Tourism, who will provide an insight into everything you’ve wanted to know (but perhaps have been too afraid to ask!) about net zero, greenhouse gases and managing your business’ carbon footprint. You will learn what your emissions are and where they arise in your business, how to calculate your carbon footprint and where and how you can reduce your emissions.
During the webinar you will hear about:
- Climate change and greenhouse gases (GHGs)
- Understanding net zero
- Monitoring GHG emissions
- Managing and reducing GHG emissions
- Adapting to climate change
Date: Thursday 16 March
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Launch of new marketing opportunities with VisitAberdeenshire
Earlier this month, we launched a range of paid-for marketing opportunities for local tourism businesses in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
Our digital presence gives you the opportunity to feature and promote your business to thousands of engaged and enthusiastic prospective customers through advertorials on our website, or via our social media and e-newsletters, helping you to improve your reach. The suite of paid-for advertising is an additional offering to our day-to-day free promotional activities such as website listings.
To find out more information on the benefits and available opportunities, click here.
Opportunities are available from 10 April 2023 so book early to guarantee your space. Contact us today at opps@visitabdn.com and one of our team will be in touch to discuss options.
Quarterly Business Monitor January 2023 – key findings
Thank you to all who took the time to share your views in our survey last month. As a result of your engagement, and sharing it with contacts, we received 103 responses, allowing us to explore the key themes more deeply.
Traditionally, October to December can be a quieter quarter for some sectors of the industry. Key quarter highlights included a strong Festive period (and a strong December in general), and a return to pre-Covid market mix. Barriers reported were along the continued themes of costs, staffing and recruitment and, new this quarter, weather and rail strikes.
When reviewing enquiries and bookings for the next 3 months and beyond, we see a significant chunk of respondents stating they have fewer than normal enquiries and bookings, reflecting rising energy costs, the cost of living crisis and the impact these are having on confidence levels, discretionary income and decision making. It is worth noting that for the 3 month period from April 2023 onwards, there are several businesses stating they are seeing “more than normal” enquiries and bookings from the overseas market.
The final question within our survey explored business optimism across 3 time periods. It was positive to see the marked difference between the short-term (next 3 months) and the longer time periods (next 12 and 24 months). 60% of responding businesses stated they felt quite or extremely optimistic about the next 12 and 24 months.
You will find the full set of findings in our slide deck, together with an easily accessible Factsheet by clicking here. We use the survey results when speaking with our stakeholders and to inform our own business decisions within the organisation.
We do appreciate so many businesses sharing their experiences and views with us. Please continue to complete the Monitor each quarter. Do share it widely too, as we know sharing from peers means people are more likely to complete a survey of this nature.
To discuss the Monitor or any insights related enquiries, contact Deirdre O’Donnell at insights@visitabdn.com.
Aberdeenshire Accommodation Stock Audit
We have commissioned Tourism Resources Company (TRC) to undertake an accommodation audit within the Aberdeenshire area. TRC is an independent tourism consultancy business, founded in 1991, who focus exclusively on the tourism and leisure sectors. They have undertaken several accommodation audits over the years.
The aim of this project is to provide a source of reliable information which will better inform activities and decisions, and also assist in the development of the region’s tourism offering.
What information will we be gathering?
- Capacity data, including number of rooms and number of bedspaces
- Business’ ability to accommodate and support visitors with access needs
- Whether business is participating in a VisitScotland quality assurance scheme
- Whether business is listed with Green Tourism
- Whether business is listed on our website
We would emphasise that this is an information gathering exercise so we can look at the bigger picture and where our strengths and possible gaps are.
Having a more accurate understanding of the region’s stock, both geographically and by sector, will help support the following:
- Conference/event bid documentation;
- Creating marketing content to reflect accommodation strengths/diverse offerings;
- Informing the marketing narrative for the region to ensure it is reflective of the accommodation offer;
- Identifying where there may be potential accommodation gaps;
- Identifying baselines for areas highlighted within the Framework for Growth document, including inclusive tourism and sustainability;
- Informing the future content of our industry development programme
The work carried out by TRC will involve desk research, an online survey (issued by us) and, if information is still missing, a telephone call to your business.
Do look out for the online survey over the next few weeks. The more comprehensive the audit at this initial stage, the more informed a picture we have for the region, giving us a solid baseline to work from.
As always, we will share the key findings from this initial phase in a future newsletter. If you have any questions or comments regarding the Accommodation Audit, do get in touch with Deirdre O’Donnell, Insights & Evaluation Manager on insights@visitabdn.com
New London and Scotland dual destination campaign
VisitScotland has been working alongside London & Partners in partnership with Expedia Group Media Solutions and Caledonian Sleeper to deliver a brand new campaign.
Running from February to May, this new London and Scotland dual destination campaign is part of VisitBritain’s Gateway Innovation Fund.
With a large proportion of US visitors arriving in the UK via London, this activity aims to drive increased visits and spend from VisitScotland’s target audiences in the US, as part of the same trip. It will position London and Scotland as the perfect dual destination trip for US visitors and highlight the ease of travel between both locations.
The campaign will run in the US market across Expedia.com. If your business is listed on Expedia, we recommend that you take the time to update your listing so you can benefit from the extra traffic generated by the campaign. If you don’t currently work with Expedia, there’s still time to get involved.
Read more about the campaign and how to get involved
North East Scotland Food & Drink Awards open for entries
Delivered by Opportunity North East in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council, the North East Scotland Food & Drink Awards showcase the breadth of the industry, recognising the achievements, entrepreneurship and products of food and drink producers of all sizes and at all stages of growth.
They are free to enter, with 12 categories to choose from, including Best Food & Drink Tourism Experience. The closing date for entries is Wednesday 1 March and winners will be announced at the awards dinner on 8 June at the Chester Hotel, Aberdeen.
To read more about the awards and submit your entries, visit www.nesfoodanddrinkawards.co.uk
Aberdeenshire Loves Local Gift Card: Business Webinar
Aberdeenshire Council is running a webinar on Tuesday 21 February, 6pm – 7pm for businesses who would like to learn how the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card scheme works and how it can benefit your business and others in Aberdeenshire.
If you would like to register for the webinar, email aberdeenshireloveslocal@aberdeenshire.gov.uk to be sent a link to join.
Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) Industry Business Barometer & Energy Survey
The STA is looking to capture the current business environment that the tourism industry is operating in, including business cost pressures and energy concerns. The STA will use the findings of the survey to inform conversations with UK and Scottish Government Ministers. The survey closes on Sunday 19 February.
All information is correct at the time of publishing, we recommend that you check opening times and information for individual places before visiting.