Tourism drive for Scotland’s south-west

13/01/2020
A digital campaign led by Visit South West Scotland looking to increase awareness of the new route

A NEW campaign is aiming to bring more visitors to south-west Scotland by showcasing the remarkable offering of the South West Coastal 300 (SWC300) touring route.

SWC300 Touring Road Route is a digital campaign led by Visit South West Scotland (VSWS) looking to increase awareness of the new route among key markets identified by VisitScotland. It is anticipated this increased awareness will lead to more visitors coming to the area to grow the local visitor economy.

The national tourism organisation are supporting the campaign with a £20,000 VisitScotland Growth Fund award. This award provides support to national, regional and sectoral tourism groups across Scotland to help them deliver partnership marketing campaigns.

The campaign will use a range of inspiring digital content to showcase the route to visitors with a passion for travel and adventure seekers from the United Kingdom and Ireland. This will include the creation of new films, images and itineraries as well as work with influencers which will be shared across YouTube to mp3, Facebook and Instagram.

It is expected the campaign will reach over 800k people via social media and at least double organic traffic to the South West Coastal 300 landing page on the VSWS website.

The campaign’s theme is that the SWC300 route will make visitors fall in love with South West Scotland. The campaign will showcase those aspects of the route which offer particular appeal to the key target markets: stunning scenery, a connection with nature and adventure sports. This theme has been identified as having the best fit with the target markets.

The SWC300 was designed by Motorcycle Scotland and VSWS adapted it to take in more attractions in the area. It is a circular route approximately 300 miles long, taking in the breath-taking coastline of Dumfries and Galloway and South Ayrshire, before heading across to Sanquhar, through to Moffat and finishing back in Dumfries.

Ian McAndrew, Chairman of Visit South West Scotland, said: “The South West of Scotland is a special place, it has so much to offer, especially to lovers of the great outdoors and that is a message we are working hard to get out there. As a trade organisation, collaboration is at the core of what we do, we rely on our members and our strategic partners to get behind our efforts to make a real difference to tourism in the South West. Therefore when VisitScotland agreed to support our promotional campaign for the South West Coastal 300, a touring route that encourages visitors to explore our region, we were delighted.”

Paula Ward, VisitScotland Regional Leadership Director, said: “With its stunning coastal and inland landscapes, peaceful atmosphere and fantastic attractions, the south-west of Scotland is a great visitor destination and the SWC300 is the perfect route for experiencing it. I’m thrilled we were able to support this exciting new campaign and I can’t wait to see the outputs.

“At VisitScotland we want to champion collaboration, spearhead digital innovation and promote local areas to make sure every part of Scotland enjoys the benefits of tourism.”

To learn more about VSWS and the #SWC300 go to www.visitsouthwestscotland.com

For more information about VisitScotland Growth Fund, go to www.visitscotland.org/supporting-your-business/funding/growth-fund

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