The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Bid launched to help attract visitors to the Highlands in winter
We want visitors to slow down and savour some of our great locations in winter
A new campaign encouraging visitors to come to the Highlands during the winter months has launched this week.
Find Your Winter Wonder Highlands is a campaign that brings together several Highland tourist organisations for the first time.
Organisations include Visit Inverness Loch Ness, Cairngorms Business Partnership, Lochaber Chamber of Commerce, NC500, Venture North, Skye Connect and Visit Moray Speyside.
The campaign will elevate the Highlands as a prime destination in the winter months and off-season.
The hope is to encourage more visitors and extend the tourist season and generate more economic benefits to the region.
Activities such as snowsports and hillwalking attract visitors to the Highlands each year, and the region has become popular during the pandemic with staycationers.
Visitors can also see the natural phenomena of the Northern Lights, usually more vivid further north.
The campaign led by the Highland Tourism Partnership (HTP) will work with more than 1,000 businesses.
The campaign has already attracted more than £17,500 in funding to help expand their remit and to generate tourism.
It builds on the £494,000 Destination and Sector Marketing Funding for the region to help Highland destinations rebuild and recover from Covid.
Chris Taylor, VisitScotland regional leadership director, said: “Responsible tourism is at the heart of everything we do.
“This campaign, which brings the Highland DMOs together to promote not only their own areas but the Highlands as a whole, aims to provide an immediate boost to businesses who have been severely affected by the pandemic.
“We want to encourage visitors to slow down and savour some of our great locations in winter – when the region is traditionally quieter, which will help manage numbers throughout the year and provide our visitors with a rewarding experience.”