Movers

New VisitScotland Digital Strategy
Just been to a presentation by Robbie Parish the Head of Digital for VisitScotland, the purpose of this was to share a preview of the new digital strategy for VisitScotland. On first impressions I have to say I'm very encouraged with the approach.

I'll blog in more detail soon, but wanted to share my initial thoughts with you. It was particularly pleasing to see the plans for the use of a centralised database structure similar to that of the Claymore Project and also how this fits with the broader Digital Scotland landscape.


I look forward to sharing more with you on this topic soon....
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Labels: digital media, digital scotland, Scottish Tourism, visitscotland
Cantlay on Scottish Golf Tourism
Over the past couple of weeks everyone in the public sector has been talking golf. Mike Cantlay Chair of VisitScotland took time out to do the same with an exclusive interview with the Dundee Courier.

He said that although golf tourism is already worth £220 million to the Scottish economy each year, there is still room to drive up revenues with the Chinese market potentially worth millions and the increasing popularity of golf in China makes it an ideal, and largely untapped, market to target.

He continued, "Scottish tourism is basically a £4 billion industry as a whole. Within that, golf is worth about £220 million pounds. it's very significant. Golf is absolutely key; the Open Championship alone was expected to raise about £84 million and more than that there is around £40 million of TV exposure that comes with it. It showcases Scotland around the world."

Cantlay recently visited China to promote golf tourism and said there has been an explosion in interest there.
He said, "The week before last, the First Minister led a delegation to China to build relationships there and we went out specifically to focus on the golf side of promoting Scotland.

"There are something like one million registered golfers. What is particularly exciting about it is that those Chinese customers who come to Scotland are some of the highest spenders we've got -- tourists are spending even more than American customers, who were traditionally our highest spenders."

He added, "We are just scratching at the market, which will be huge. They are excited about spending time on Scottish courses -- they can't believe the accessibility. The visit included the launch of a new golf brochure advertising Scotland, written in Chinese.

The Chinese market is one that seems to be getting pushed very heavily by the Government and Visitscotland. There is no doubting that it is an emerging market and one that neighbours Ireland have been pushing too but from an industry perspective there seems considerable scepticism that this market is going to contribute greatly for a long time to come.

Any thoughts on the Chinese market ?

Santafe

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Formula One cars race at high speeds, up to 360 km/h (220 mph) with engines revving up to a formula imposed limit of 18,000 rpm. The cars are capable of pulling in excess of 5 g on some corners. The performance of the cars is highly dependent on electronics (although traction control and driving aids have been banned since 2008), aerodynamics, suspension, and tyres. The formula has seen many evolutions and changes through the history of the sport.
Europe is Formula One's traditional centre, where all of the teams are based, and where around half of the races take place. However, the sport's scope has expanded significantly in recent years and Grands Prix are held all over the world.
Formula One is a massive television event, with an aggregate global audience of 600 million people for each race.[6] The Formula One Group is the legal holder of the commercial rights.[7] With annual spending totalling billions of US dollars, Formula One's economic effect is significant, and its financial and political battles are widely covered. Its high profile and popularity make it an obvious merchandising environment, which leads to very high investments from sponsors, translating into extremely high budgets for the constructors. However, mostly since 2000, due to the always increasing expenditures, several teams, including works teams from car makers and those teams with minimal support from the automotive industry, have gone bankrupt or been bought out by companies wanting to establish a team within the sport; these buyouts are also influenced by Formula One limiting the number of participant teams.