East Sutherland Tourism Industry meets at Burghfield House in Dornoch
East Sutherland tourism businesses met at a seminar entitled “Tourism is Everyone’s Business” at the Burghfield House on Monday 1 March. The seminar, which was jointly organised by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and The Highland Council, was attended by over 40 representatives from local tourism businesses joined by East Sutherland and Edderton Councillors Ian Ross, Deirdre Mackay and Jim McGillivray and officials from HIE. The purpose of the event was to provide a forum for East Sutherland tourism businesses to meet up and discuss how to promote the area to visitors.
Scott Armstrong of Visit Scotland gave a detailed statistical breakdown of visitor numbers for 2009 and asked the audience to consider trends for 2010, and in particular the competitive market place and how the current economic situation is driving a need to deliver value for money to visitors.
The key note speaker, Gavin Ellis of Knockomie Hotel Forres, 2009 Thistle Award Winner, who is a Director the Scottish Tourism Forum, emphasised the need to work in partnership to promote the area and to improve the visitor experience in East Sutherland.
The seminar was also addressed by Robert Ratcliffe, the General Manager of Royal Golf Hotel, Dornoch who provided an update on the plans for Royal Golf including its re-opening at the beginning of April.
Marina Huggett of Tourism Excellence facilitated the proceedings and introduced the group work which worked to identify the unique selling points of East Sutherland and identify ideas to take forward. As a result of the meeting a group of businesses have agreed to meet and consider how to take forward a number of issues and initiatives raised at the seminar.
Participants were provided with a first class lunch prepared by the students at Burghfield House and were given a guided tour of the facilities at the training hotel.
Councillor Ian Ross in his opening remarks said: “Tourism is a vital industry to Sutherland, employing many people, directly and indirectly. A successful tourism industry reaps many benefits for East Sutherland. This seminar is a great opportunity for businesses to get together to see how we can promote the considerable strengths of the area.”
Roy Kirk of HIE in his closing remarks thanked everyone for their frank and full participation in the day. Afterwards he said: “I am delighted at the response from the tourism industry today and it has been great to see businesses making contact with each other. I am excited by the potential we have identified and really look forward to seeing how things develop.”