Golf Tourism Scotland have announced date for this year's 2011 Gold Standard Awards - the golf industry's red-carpet event where the best of Scotland's travel, hospitality and golf service providers are celebrated.
The 2011 Awards will take place at the award-winning Fairmont St Andrews on Thursday 3rd November.
Notably, the venue was awarded Resort Hotel of the Year 2010 by GTS and hosted the awards in 2007.
Lee Derrick, chairman of GTS noted: "We are really looking forward to working alongside Fairmont St Andrews in the run-up to the awards. The Fairmont has a reputation for putting on a fantastic show and will no doubt do a great job. There's a lot to celebrate this year with the Scottish golf industry continuing to make its mark internationally. I am sure that the Gold Standard Awards will be a night to remember."
For those of you who were their in 2007, you may recall that the Red Hot Chilli Pipers blew the audience away as post dinner entertainment and more than £2500 was raised for Children in Need with the Tartan Army and Runrig version of Loch Lomond. You have to watch the video below just for the Perry Golf Dance Version...
Ticket prices fro the event until 30th Sept are:
Table of 10: GTS members & guests - £800; non-members - £999
Individuals: members - £85; non-members - £105
From October 1st they go up to:
Table of 10: GTS members & guests - £900; non-members - £1,100
Individuals: members - £95; non-members - £115
Places can be reserved by emailing admin@golftourismscotland.com
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Golf and Bed and Breakfast Ayrshire
Last year B & B owners were invited to a meeting hosted by Ayrshire Business Gateway where more than 30 owners met and voted in favour of forming such an association. A working committee was formed to devise ways forward such as sourcing funding, web design and promotion of local attractions. They have since had discussions with Business Gateway, South Ayrshire Council, VisitScotland, Ayrshire’s Tourism Forum, the Ayrshire and Arran Hoteliers Association and also the Ayrshire Food Network who have all been very supportive of the venture.
Essentially the aim is to publicise what Ayrshire has to offer in order to encourage people to come and enjoy their stay so that they want to come back again.
If you are interested in joining ABBA or for more information please contact any of the following Ayrshire B & B Association Committee Members through the ABBA website
Ayrshire Bed and Breakfasts Come Together
Last year B & B owners were invited to a meeting hosted by Ayrshire Business Gateway where more than 30 owners met and voted in favour of forming such an association. A working committee was formed to devise ways forward such as sourcing funding, web design and promotion of local attractions. They have since had discussions with Business Gateway, South Ayrshire Council, VisitScotland, Ayrshire’s Tourism Forum, the Ayrshire and Arran Hoteliers Association and also the Ayrshire Food Network who have all been very supportive of the venture.
Essentially the aim is to publicise what Ayrshire has to offer in order to encourage people to come and enjoy their stay so that they want to come back again.
If you are interested in joining ABBA or for more information please contact any of the following Ayrshire B & B Association Committee Members through the ABBA website
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Belleisle Park in Ayrshire Secures Heritage Funding
South Ayrshire Council's Belleisle Park has received initial support for a £1.5m funding bid from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The figure includes £56,000 development funding which will be used to plan the details of the complete project.
Belleisle Park was originally designed by Dr John Campbell of Wellwood, a local businessman who made his fortune in the coalmining and tobacco trade, and bought the estate in 1775. In later years it came into Council ownership.
Colin McLean, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said: "Belleisle Park is a valuable pocket of green space in South Ayrshire and is much-loved by the local community. We are pleased to be giving our initial support for this worth-while redevelopment project and are looking forward to working with the Council on these exciting plans over the coming months."
Councillor Margaret Toner, Portfolio Holder for Economic Development, Tourism and Leisure said: "This is terrific news and I know that people across South Ayrshire and beyond will be celebrating the news that we have initial support from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
"We have worked closely with the Friends of Belleisle and other interested parties to create a vision that we know we can make a reality, which will see Belleisle Park prosper again.
"The plan is to conserve the park's remaining historic features such as the stable block, walled garden, lodge house and rockeries. The Friends of Belleisle group will also support various volunteer training activities and public events.
"Many people have happy memories of childhood days spent at Belleisle and in turn have taken their children and grandchildren there to enjoy the magnificent outdoor space. Belleisle is a popular tourist destination and this is something that we want to capitalise on, when people play golf we want to encourage them to then enjoy the rest of Belleisle."
Norman McLean, Chair of The Friends of Belleisle said: "We are all celebrating this fantastic news. I am grateful to South Ayrshire Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and everyone else who is working in partnership to breath new life into Belleisle Park. This is the start of a new and exciting journey."
Belleisle Park was originally designed by Dr John Campbell of Wellwood, a local businessman who made his fortune in the coalmining and tobacco trade, and bought the estate in 1775. In later years it came into Council ownership.
Colin McLean, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said: "Belleisle Park is a valuable pocket of green space in South Ayrshire and is much-loved by the local community. We are pleased to be giving our initial support for this worth-while redevelopment project and are looking forward to working with the Council on these exciting plans over the coming months."
Councillor Margaret Toner, Portfolio Holder for Economic Development, Tourism and Leisure said: "This is terrific news and I know that people across South Ayrshire and beyond will be celebrating the news that we have initial support from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
"We have worked closely with the Friends of Belleisle and other interested parties to create a vision that we know we can make a reality, which will see Belleisle Park prosper again.
"The plan is to conserve the park's remaining historic features such as the stable block, walled garden, lodge house and rockeries. The Friends of Belleisle group will also support various volunteer training activities and public events.
"Many people have happy memories of childhood days spent at Belleisle and in turn have taken their children and grandchildren there to enjoy the magnificent outdoor space. Belleisle is a popular tourist destination and this is something that we want to capitalise on, when people play golf we want to encourage them to then enjoy the rest of Belleisle."
Norman McLean, Chair of The Friends of Belleisle said: "We are all celebrating this fantastic news. I am grateful to South Ayrshire Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and everyone else who is working in partnership to breath new life into Belleisle Park. This is the start of a new and exciting journey."
Sunday, 26 June 2011
The Cairngorms Partnership Workshop
Remember the dread and horror? The sinking feeling in your gut as you walked out to the front of the class to collect your envelope from your primary five school teacher? Knowing that the last spelling test was not as good as it could have been and wondering what the consequences would be when you got home of the "could do better" report card?
Well, there was I, Friday afternoon, already thinking about packing up my laptop to get ready for a couple of weeks holiday when the metaphorical sealed envelope arrived from Mr Rankin, the Cairngorms Partnership "heidie". It said "Don't Open" louder than any virus checker I've ever installed but even knowing the contents and the likely results did I leave it for my return? Did I hell, I opened it of course I did with the same sinking feeling of that walk from desk to Miss Sheridan three decades earlier...
Now we extol the virtues of email marketing - we use ConstantContact for everything from newsletters to event sales and of course now for Customer Feedback - and as we always say to our clients you have to accept the rough with the smooth and build from it. Yeah right but that doesn't stop the eleven year old you taking over does it!
The first time I saw the agenda I thought wonderful; 3pm; item nine (and last) on a five hour workshop agenda. Could be tricky. Following a speaker on a similar subject to mine who is well known locally. Bit of a challenge. Stick with the PowerPoint and play it safe. Or do something different.
Well the results are out! Something different was the choice the only thing was the something different was just well different! Or "disjointed", "haphazard" "too pacy". Not quite "West of Scotland Presenter Nil Points" but proof that PowerPoint has a role to play and that online presentations with someone else's laptop should not be attempted no matter how different you think you can be!
Anyway, all self pitying removed, the disappointment when you don't hit the mark with the audience is all the more telling when you are so passionate about the message you wish to get across. But the old Keep It Simple Stupid advice we give out was ignored and the points that could have been better made were an opportunity lost. "The best thing you can do with knowledge is share it" and when you don't share it properly it is mightily frustrating. So in an effort to get more of the theme across...
Lost - The PowerPoint Presentation that Never Was
So in the spirit of redemption here's Plan B. The PowerPoint that was prepared for the day but ditched the evening before - even better than it would have been because it doesn't include a 200 mph commentary over the top and remains on a straight line with no deviation from subject anywhere!
The day was extremely interesting all the way through and whether by accident or by design moved progressively through the concept of partnership and collaboration and profitable joint working from the traditional tour operator distribution channels to social media and online selling.
The presentation would have worked in that context and therefore I thought it was worth publishing in full for the audience as it may trigger some thoughts and collate some of the points from the day turning them into action points for the future.
The PowerPoint looks at the issues of multiple distribution, addresses the issues of scale and tries to highlight just some of the areas hospitality and tourism businesses must address. Sure as was discussed on the day, you can't do everything but you can look at the big picture and ultimately decide what is best for your business and quite brutally at this time in the economic cycle it must surely be built on ROI - Return on Investment of both time and money. As a previous article we wrote a long time ago states ROI is King.
You can run the PowerPoint as a slide show or download a PDF version of it to print out. You can also link directly to the presentation directly.
Useful Links or Downloads
The following articles or PDF Briefings have been designed to assist tourism operators get a better understanding of what they CAN do... your feedback would be appreciated.
Social Media and Online Marketing
Bookassist Online Reservations and Marketing
Sitebuilder
Scotland's For Me
Scotland's For Me is a pan Scotland free to use "tourism portal" currently undergoing a full overhaul for a scheduled September relaunch. However even in the midst of upgrading it can give your tourism business another free distribution channel to promote your business through. If you write up and send us your news, offers, events we'll publish them for you as quickly as possible across our blogs and Facebook page. You can also have a free entry on the Scotland's For Me website when relaunched. Contact us if you wish more information on your own page.
Scotland's For Me Blog
Scotland's For Me Facebook
Scotland's For Me Website - Accommodation Page
Tourism Matters - Industry Blog
If you have any queries about the presentation or indeed any of the above areas please drop us an email, visit our website or call Plan B on 01292 521404
Well, there was I, Friday afternoon, already thinking about packing up my laptop to get ready for a couple of weeks holiday when the metaphorical sealed envelope arrived from Mr Rankin, the Cairngorms Partnership "heidie". It said "Don't Open" louder than any virus checker I've ever installed but even knowing the contents and the likely results did I leave it for my return? Did I hell, I opened it of course I did with the same sinking feeling of that walk from desk to Miss Sheridan three decades earlier...
Now we extol the virtues of email marketing - we use ConstantContact for everything from newsletters to event sales and of course now for Customer Feedback - and as we always say to our clients you have to accept the rough with the smooth and build from it. Yeah right but that doesn't stop the eleven year old you taking over does it!
The first time I saw the agenda I thought wonderful; 3pm; item nine (and last) on a five hour workshop agenda. Could be tricky. Following a speaker on a similar subject to mine who is well known locally. Bit of a challenge. Stick with the PowerPoint and play it safe. Or do something different.
Well the results are out! Something different was the choice the only thing was the something different was just well different! Or "disjointed", "haphazard" "too pacy". Not quite "West of Scotland Presenter Nil Points" but proof that PowerPoint has a role to play and that online presentations with someone else's laptop should not be attempted no matter how different you think you can be!
Anyway, all self pitying removed, the disappointment when you don't hit the mark with the audience is all the more telling when you are so passionate about the message you wish to get across. But the old Keep It Simple Stupid advice we give out was ignored and the points that could have been better made were an opportunity lost. "The best thing you can do with knowledge is share it" and when you don't share it properly it is mightily frustrating. So in an effort to get more of the theme across...
Lost - The PowerPoint Presentation that Never Was
So in the spirit of redemption here's Plan B. The PowerPoint that was prepared for the day but ditched the evening before - even better than it would have been because it doesn't include a 200 mph commentary over the top and remains on a straight line with no deviation from subject anywhere!
The day was extremely interesting all the way through and whether by accident or by design moved progressively through the concept of partnership and collaboration and profitable joint working from the traditional tour operator distribution channels to social media and online selling.
The presentation would have worked in that context and therefore I thought it was worth publishing in full for the audience as it may trigger some thoughts and collate some of the points from the day turning them into action points for the future.
The PowerPoint looks at the issues of multiple distribution, addresses the issues of scale and tries to highlight just some of the areas hospitality and tourism businesses must address. Sure as was discussed on the day, you can't do everything but you can look at the big picture and ultimately decide what is best for your business and quite brutally at this time in the economic cycle it must surely be built on ROI - Return on Investment of both time and money. As a previous article we wrote a long time ago states ROI is King.You can run the PowerPoint as a slide show or download a PDF version of it to print out. You can also link directly to the presentation directly.
Useful Links or Downloads
The following articles or PDF Briefings have been designed to assist tourism operators get a better understanding of what they CAN do... your feedback would be appreciated.
Social Media and Online Marketing- Make Your Online Marketing Look Better
- Target Facebook by Location
- A PDF Guide to Blogs
- A PDF Guide to Using Your Google Account
Sitebuilder
Scotland's For Me is a pan Scotland free to use "tourism portal" currently undergoing a full overhaul for a scheduled September relaunch. However even in the midst of upgrading it can give your tourism business another free distribution channel to promote your business through. If you write up and send us your news, offers, events we'll publish them for you as quickly as possible across our blogs and Facebook page. You can also have a free entry on the Scotland's For Me website when relaunched. Contact us if you wish more information on your own page.
Scotland's For Me Blog
Scotland's For Me Facebook
Scotland's For Me Website - Accommodation Page
Tourism Matters - Industry Blog
If you have any queries about the presentation or indeed any of the above areas please drop us an email, visit our website or call Plan B on 01292 521404
Friday, 24 June 2011
Make Your Online Marketing Look better
As you start using your online marketing and social media channels more and more there is a need to try and make sure that the visual impact from them hits the mark in the same way that you would through your website. Designing eye catching yet functional headers and banners for your Facebook and Email Marketing newsletters help.David Mundell at Mundell Music has heavily adopted online channels to promote his live music events and venues and through ConstantContact and Facebook he increases the reach of his message substantially and even secures direct online sales from these activities.
We're delighted therefore to have produced some new graphics for him today to promote his Mundell Music Facebook page and his three Scottish live music venues. We think they're quite a neat presentation tool.
To get a quote call Plan B on 01292 521404 or send an email
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Target Facebook Fans by Language and Location
Bookassist's Senior Social Media Strategist Paul Ferry shows how you can make use of Facebook's location and language features to target more relevant posts to parts of your fanbase.
Facebook provides a useful feature in the Status box on your Facebook wall that allows you to target your fans with by location and/or language. Hotels may not be aware that they can use this to their advantage with their posts.
The targeting feature is extremely useful to hotels on the continent that would like to separately target their native language speaking fans and their English speaking fans from the one hotel Facebook Fan page. It can also be useful for hotels to directly target certain countries or cities where their Facebook Fans are located.
Before we look at how to use Status box feature to target your hotel's varied Facebook Fan base, we will analyse the hotel's Facebook Insights to determine the demographics of the hotel’s Facebook Fans.
1. Analyse Facebook Insights
To analyse your hotel's Facebook Insights simply visit facebook.com/insights or click the "View Insights" link on the right hand column of your hotel's fan page when logged in. Once you have accessed the Insights section for your page, click the "Users" link in the left hand column of the page.
Figure 1. Facebook Insights, Demographics graphs found in the User section.From this data we can determine the demographics of your hotel's fan base. In this case, a quick look shows that the majority of fans are located in Ireland but there is a substantial amount of fans located in other European countries. English is the predominant language with an even split of Italian, Spanish and French speaking fans. Considering this information, posting in English will cover the majority of the fan base in most countries but posting in other languages to reach out to everyone would be highly recommended. Another additional observation is the town/cities column. Using this information your hotel can target specialised posts to smaller demographics.
2. Targeting Posts by Location
With Facebook Insights you have a better idea of who you should target with your posts. To activate the post targeting feature simply begin to type in the Status box and a drop-down button appears beside the "Share" button. By default this drop-down is set to "Everyone". Simply click on the drop-down and select "Customise".
Figure 2. Simply click on the “Everyone” drop-down and click the “Customise” option
Choose "Customise" and a pop-up window appears. In the “Location” field of the pop-up begin to type the country or countries you would like to target your hotel’s post. Facebook will automatically generate a list of countries to select from.
Figure 3. Facebook will automatically generate a list of countriesTo further target your post to a cities or towns in a particular country, select the country first and then select the radio button "By City". Similar to the country selection field, Facebook automatically generates a list of cities or towns in your selected country so you can enter multiple cities.
Figure 4. Facebook will automatically generate a list of cities or townsOnce finished, click "OK". After you have finished writing your post click “Share” and only the selected fan base will see that post in their newsfeed. (The post will still appear to everyone on your own Facebook page.)
3.Targeting Posts by Language
Targeting posts by languages requires the same steps as targeting by location. Select the "Customise" option from the drop-down beside the "Share" button and the pop-up will appear. In the “Languages” field simply begin to type the language or languages you would like to target.
Figure 5. Facebook will automatically generate a list of languages4.Targeting by both countries and languages
Follow the steps mentioned in the previous points to combine choices for location and for language.
Figure 6. Both language and location targetingDifferent nationalities have different travel habits, and take holidays at different times of the year for example. They also have different interests in terms of what your hotel or location offers. The above steps can help hotels to more strongly target certain demographic groups with special offers or more relevant information rather than always using a “catch all” approach. This can increase interaction with your posts, and hence conversion.
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