VisitAberdeenshire News - November 2025
Celebrating Excellence
This week, tourism businesses from across Scotland will gather in Glasgow for the annual national Thistle Awards. This is a celebration of exceptional people and businesses whose innovation, commitment, and in many cases resilience, have already earned recognition at regional award ceremonies earlier in the autumn. A strong ‘Team North East’ of regional winners will be making the journey south and we wish them the very best of luck (not that they should need it, of course). But win, lose, or draw we know that the North-east offers high quality experiences to our visitors. This month’s newsletter highlights how we at VisitAberdeenshire are supporting and promoting our sector throughout the year.
Northern Nights Campaign
Our Northern Nights winter campaign is currently live, running through to January 2026. If your business has a wonderful winter-themed experience, whether that is a seasonal menu, a Burns’ Night supper, cosy stay, event or special winter offer, please ensure:
- Our Tourism Development team are aware of your offer by contacting industry@visitabdn.com.
- Any events are listed on our What’s on guide, by clicking here.
- You have familiarised yourself with our new 2025 Northern Nights marketing toolkit.
If you have any other questions, please get in touch with us.
Image Credit: WhiteSky Photographics
Join our 2026 welcome volunteers, all smiles (and languages) welcome!
The Welcome to Aberdeenshire Volunteer Programme has had another fantastic year in 2025, with our dedicated volunteers providing a warm, friendly welcome to thousands of cruise visitors arriving into the Port of Aberdeen. From assisting passengers with local information to creating lasting first impressions of our region, their enthusiasm and commitment continue to make a real difference.
As we prepare for another exciting year, we are now inviting new volunteers to join the team for the 2026 season. Whether you are passionate about sharing your local knowledge, enjoy meeting people from around the world, or can offer language skills in French, German, Spanish, or Italian, we’d love to hear from you, though these skills aren’t essential to get involved.
To find out more or express your interest, please contact Fiona Douglas, HR & Business Services Manager
Travel Trade Updates - Familiarisation Visits.
Alanna Fowler, Travel Trade Executive, recently hosted familiarisation visits with two separate tour specialists – Alainn Tours and Celtic Routes.
Alainn Tours: 8 – 10 October
Alainn Tours, a European tour specialist, explored Aberdeenshire on a self-drive familiarisation. They made surprise visits to hotels, restaurants, and event spaces, and were impressed by the warm welcome from the group of suppliers. Alanna joined them for dinner at Tarragon to discuss routes, itinerary ideas, and ways to showcase the city. The group split over two hotels to make the most of the visit but are already planning to return to spend more time exploring.
Celtic Routes: 21 -23 October
Alanna, worked with Celtic Routes to expand their original “Royal Deeside only” request, showing how the area can be a perfect base for exploring Aberdeenshire. The group enjoyed a range of luxury accommodation, food and drink experiences and a bespoke tour of Aberdeenshire’s landscapes, which included visits to a nearby deer farm, fly fishing activities and several cultural landmarks. The trip left a lasting impression on Celtic Routes, inspiring them to feature more of the North- East in their future itineraries.
Upcoming VisitAberdeenshire Events
NEWS FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS
Scottish Agritourism Conference – 27 November
The Scottish Agritourism Conference will take place 27th November at the Perth Concert Hall. This is an annual celebration of Scotland's agritourism sector, open to anyone with an interest in growing agritourism in Scotland. There will be an exciting programme of speakers for the day, including Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and the Islands, who will announce new results of the current value of agritourism and farm retail in Scotland.
Zero Waste Scotland – Circular Economy Accelerator Grant
Zero Waste Scotland is Scotland’s Circular Economy Body. Their strategic aim is to rewire Scotland’s economic system, increasing the uptake in business adopting or applying circular economy practices and, in turn, driving a reduction of our consumption of natural resources through increased circularity.
As part of their ongoing programme of support, grant funding is available to early-stage projects potentially capable of delivering at scale or delivering interventions with the potential to be replicated across a sector, industry or region.
Applications are welcomed on an ongoing basis.
Cairngorms Trust – Communities and Cultural Heritage Fund
The overall purpose of the Communities and Cultural Heritage Fund is to support community-led planning and development in the National Park that will help communities meet their aspirations and enhance community resilience. This is a partnership fund between the Cairngorms Trust and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA).
The Fund aims to support two of the themes in the Community Action Plan (CAP):
- A culturally vibrant community – projects that support and celebrate the unique identity and heritage of communities e.g. community spaces, features, buildings, people, traditions.
- A socially connected community – projects that support communities to be happy, healthy, accessible and inclusive e.g. improving facilities, amenities, spaces, events and housing.
Project spend must be complete and claimed by 10 February 2027.
Applications Close: 5 January 2026
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