1. Progress

2. VisitInvernessLochNess
Not for profit limited company
Board of Directors of 12, chairman Graeme Bell, Inverness Airport
Management Team equivalent to 3.3 F/T
445 levy paying members and 50 opt-in members

3. Funding Levy payments from members -177K Other funding secured:
Fees from opt-in members - £12K
Highland Council - £10K annually
Common Good Fund - £20K annually for Business Tourism
3 year 50% intervention support from HIE on Business Tourism, approximate value £50K
£22K over 3 years from HIE for VILN support of the Digital Tourism Scotland Programme

4. Funding £42K from assorted funders for support of events 2015 -2017
£20K in kind support from Forestry Commission Scotland
Highland Council -£10K for development of the South Loch Ness trail 2015
Highland Council - £60K for development of the South Loch Ness trail 2016
SSE- £50K for development of the South Loch Ness Trail 2017
And….
£2M for international marketing of the area through VisitBritain working with VILN
Four year campaign
Focus on extending the season in the shoulder months

5. A reminder of the six objectives 2014 -2019
To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
To work with partners to improve the tourism infrastructure
To provide business development opportunities for member businesses
To grow the value and importance of business tourism to the destination
To promote and support new and existing sustainable events & festivals
To be a voice for members on issues of concern to the local tourism industry

6. So what have we done for your business and the destination ?
Activity completed
Activity ongoing
Activity not undertaken or postponed

7. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
Branding of Inverness Loch Ness as one destination

8. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
The development of
Average number of unique
sessions per month – 30,000
Average session duration – 2 minutes
Top users – year olds
Top user location outside of UK, - US

9. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
Social media development
VILN - 32K likes
Member – 529 likes
1,700 followers
1,300 followers
Minimum of 5 blogs
written per month

10. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
‘What’s On’ in Inverness Loch Ness

11. Highlights outdoor activities that visitors
Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
Production of promotional video
Highlights outdoor activities that visitors
can participate in in the area or close by

12. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
Work in partnership with VisitScotland to maximise benefit from regional/national events

13. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
Production annually of ‘See & Do’ map - 160,000 printed in 2017

14. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
Work with local tourism groups:
Man v Horse, South Loch Ness Affric-Kintail Way 2015

15. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
UK consumer marketing campaign in partnership with Inverness airport and VisitScotland
Campaign statistics
Facebook creative 1.4M impressions
Journal.ie M impressions
Competition 10K entries
Overall CPA for campaign £3.86
Overall Very strong results

16. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
Extensive Image library for use by members

17. Objective 1: To market and promote Inverness Loch Ness as one destination
Produce marketing material to promote the Inverness islands and surrounding leisure and visitor attractions - lack of demand for to implement
Conduct on-going market research to enable VILN to better target key visitor sectors and also demonstrate economic impact – cost prohibitive
Produce a printable weekly online What’s on Guide for members – lack of demand from members

18. VisitBritain Campaign
Collaborative 4 Year campaign lead by Visit Britain to market Inverness & Loch Ness in key international markets over the shoulder and winter months
Budget – minimum of £500,000 per annum
Focus on France, Netherlands and Germany

19. VisitBritain Campaign Consumer :

20. Year1 Headline Summary £357K Media spend 116k site visits
2600 competition entries
14m unique users reached
Over 7700 external clicks
Frequency of 2.5 OTS

21. Year 2

22. VisitBritain Campaign
International Media Guide
distributed by VisitBritain to
interested media worldwide

23. VisitBritain campaign
Attendance at Travel Trade Events: 480 appointments
Mexico, Sep 2015
Meet the French Trade,
Paris, Jan 2016
Aviemore, 2016
PR VIBE, London &
Glasgow 2017
Liverpool, &
Brighton 2017
Berlin, 2016 & 2017

24. VisitBritain campaign
Fam trips for media/bloggers/ influencers/travel trade/media/TV companies
36 different trips and 150+ attendees
Attendees from UK, USA, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Nordics

25. Visit Britain Social Travel Summit, Inverness, September 2016
#STSInverness ‘opportunities to see’ on
social media – 54M
Number of Twitter accounts reached
- 4.5M

26. Objective 2: To work with partners to improve the tourism infrastructure
Improving the attractiveness and access to shores of Loch Ness at 5 laybys on the south side of Loch Ness, in partnership with the Forestry Commission

27. Objective 2: Work with partners to improve the tourism infrastructure
Completion of the South Loch Ness Trail thus creating a circular trail around Loch Ness

28. Objective 2: Work with partners to improve the tourism infrastructure
To improve the visibility of Loch Ness on the north side – project aborted due to financial costs involved

29. Achieve World Host destination status
Objective 3: To provide business development opportunities for member businesses
Achieve World Host destination status
World Host destination status achieved May 2017
Only the 2nd destination in Scotland to achieve
53 member businesses accredited with World Host
22 courses delivered over 14 months
240 people completed course  

30. Objective 3: To provide business development opportunities for member businesses
3 year support of the Digital Tourism
Scotland programme In
11 workshops facilitated
70 businesses participated
102 attendees

31. Objective 3: To provide business development opportunities for member businesses
Provide opportunities for businesses to learn
from each other and guest speakers at
networking events
Between 2014 – October
13 events
142 unique member businesses participated
642 attendees
Includes ‘mini-EXPO’, May 2017

32. Objective 3: To provide business development opportunities for member businesses
Made aware to members all opportunities to participate in workshops, seminars and conferences provided by VisitScotland, the Scottish Tourism Alliance, HIE, Highland Council

33. Objective 3: To provide business development opportunities for member businesses
Provide opportunity for businesses to minimise their carbon footprint – lack of demand

34. Objective 4: To grow the value and importance of business tourism to the destination
Research and compile a summary of present
offer in area – 1000 copies
printed and distributed

35. Objective 4: To grow the value and importance of business tourism to the destination
Develop a client database

36. Objective 4: To grow the value and importance of business tourism to the destination
Work in partnership with VisitScotland and other key organisations to ensure a dedicated presence at national and international events at which to promote the area for conferences and business tourism
trade shows attended – 248 appointments – 23 event enquiries – 10 confirmed projects in the destination

37. Objective 4: Attract more Conferences and Business Tourism all year round
Host familiarisation visits to promote the area to potential clients

38. Objective 5: To promote and support new and existing sustainable events & festivals
Knitfest 2016 , 1100 attendees from 20 different countries and estimated economic impact of £450,000

39. Objective 5: To promote and support new and existing sustainable events & festivals
Sponsor of Etape Loch Ness 2016, 2017 and 2018

40. Objective 5:To promote and support new and existing sustainable events & festivals
Online booking of events/festivals – cost prohibitive
Make available Tourism BID event booking system to businesses no demand for

41. Objective 6: To be a voice for members on issues of concern to the local tourism industry
Our voice is being heard ….
Issues raised at national level: rates revaluation, vat in tourism, Brexit
Issues raised at local level : the Inverness Artworks Project, broadband in rural areas, the Castle Project, lack of comfort facilities for visitors in rural areas, parking for coaches in the city centre, transport out to visitor attractions, ship to ship oil transfer in Moray Firth

42. And developed a suite of ‘member only’ benefits….
These include
Listings on
To share in the VisitBritain campaign fam trip, media and trade opportunities
Use of a bank of images and videos taken by professional photographers
Supply of free “See & Do” tear-off maps
The opportunity to attend VisitScotland Expo as part of the VILN stand
For full list please see at benefits.aspx

43. Who do we work with ?
And we chair the Highland Tourism Partnership…..