Boost for island’s drive to attract tourists
THE island of Bute is ploughing a six-figure investment into a rebranding and marketing initiative in a bid to attract 100,000 extra tourists.
The Argyll and The Islands Leader Programme is providing £54,000, the Visitscotland Growth Fund £37,000 and VisitBute £21,000.
The programme hopes to position the island as one of the best short-break destinations in the country and capitalise on the expected influx of visitors to Scotland over the next few years, in the run up to the Ryder Cup and the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
More than 70 businesses are backing the plan, including West Coast Motors, Caledonian Macbrayne and The Mount Stuart Estate. They will collaborate to improve services across the island while a newly appointed marketing and tourism officer will be responsible for implementing promotional campaigns aimed at attracting more visitors.
Leo Plaster, most recently head of marketing at Kilgraston School in Perthshire, is moving to Bute to take up the role.
He said: “It is a good challenge to get new types of visitors to the island and create a whole new brand.
“All the businesses realise the value of marketing so it won’t be a case of having to convince them and we have a tender out for a design company.
“The first thing I will be doing is sorting out a new brand and getting a website up and running before May as we want to get it done before the high season. There will be a lot more tourism to Scotland over the next few years with 2014 on the horizon.
“This gives us the chance to iron out any problems we may have this summer and really kick on from that.”
Visitbute hopes to increase annual tourist numbers from 200,000 to 300,000 by 2015.
There is also an aim to grow the value of tourism, which currently makes up around 40% of the island’s economy, by 30%.
Ciara Wilson, local development officer and director of Visitbute, said: “Numbers to the island have been in decline since the 1970s.
“We did a survey in Glasgow where 78% of respondents did not know where Bute was, 18% had never heard of it and 28% would not consider it as a holiday destination.
“We knew we had to do something and there is now a lot of good work going on.”
Regeneration projects are overhauling the town centre on Rothesay and the art deco Pavilion building.
The Visitscotland Growth Fund allows tourism businesses to apply for up to £65,000 to use for marketing.
Malcolm Roughead, the chief executive of Visitscotland, said: “In what continues to be a difficult economic environment, it is crucial that Scotland’s tourism businesses work together to make the most of what their regions have to offer.
“Visitbute is a perfect example of this and this £37,000 award from the Visitscotland Growth Fund will help the group to showcase the island’s unique qualities to potential staycationers.”