Big Houses in the Scottish Borders Produces Illustrative Map to Promote Tourism in the Region

Posted on by image_print

EDINBURGH, Scotland, 2017-Apr-17 — /Travel PR News/ — A new full-colour, illustrative map has been produced by the Big Houses in the Scottish Borders group to highlight their stunning properties to increase visitor numbers and promote what the region has to offer. The new map will feature beautiful landmarks of the Scottish Borders including Traquair, Abbotsford, Thirlestane Castle, Floors Castle, Gunsgreen House, Bowhill House and Country Estate, Mellerstain House, Monteviot House and Neidpath Castle. To be launched at the VisitScotland Expo trade show in Glasgow, the collaborative leaflet will be certain to also attract additional group visitors to the region during this Year of History, Heritage & Archaeology.

The map has been designed by Galashiels graphic designer, Winnie Stewart, and illustrator, Diane Lumley, also from the Scottish Borders. It combines new illustrations of the grand houses and castles with a custom scale map of the region showing exact locations of each house, road numbers, the Borders railway and stations, cycle and footpaths and other places of interest. It also includes visitor information for each of the castles or houses featured.

The Big Houses in the Scottish Borders is a non-profit organisation that was formed in 2012, to enable these visitor attractions to work collaboratively and to share ideas, fundraising opportunities and marketing activity.

Helen Currie, Chair of the group said: “This was a wonderful opportunity to join together and put each of our fantastic properties on a combined map to make it easier for visitors to see what amazing properties there are across the Borders to go and visit.”

VisitScotland Regional Director Doug Wilson said: “Scotland’s history and culture are among the top reasons for visiting Scotland. The launch of this new map in 2017, the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology, demonstrates a real commitment to further enhancing our region’s tourism offering and attracting more visitors to delve into the past to discover some of the hidden gems and fascinating stories that they perhaps weren’t previously aware of in the Scottish Borders.”

Giles Ingram, Chief Executive, Abbotsford said: “Seeing so many fascinating and historic houses on the one map really brings home the unique story of the Scottish Borders. A wild frontier region for generations, later an inspiration for poets and writers, today an inspiring place to visit.”

Winnie Stewart, Designer said “I was thrilled to collaborate with Diane and be given the task of bringing together all these beautiful buildings to create a leaflet that I hope will be invaluable for visitors to the Scottish Borders.”

Notes to Editors

  • Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
  • VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
  • The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
  • This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
    1. Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
    2. Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
    3. Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
    4. Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
    5. Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
    6. Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
    7. Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
  • VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
  • The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
  • Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP.
  • The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit www.gov.scot or follow @scotgovESIF
  • For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
  • Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
  • For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
  • For information about business events in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com

2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology

  • 2017 is the year to delve into the past and discover Scotland’s fascinating stories through a wide-ranging variety of new and existing activity to drive the nation’s tourism and events sector, boosting tourism across Scotland.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology begins on 1 January 2017 and will end on 31 December 2017. It will build on the momentum generated by previous themed years in Scotland including the 2015 Year of Food and Drink, Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Creative Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is supported by £570,000 of Scottish Government funding.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
  • For more information visit visitscotland.com/HHA2017 or join the conversation at #HHA2017

Contact:

Barbara Clark
Barbara.Clark@visitscotland.com
0131 472 2212
Out of hours – 0131 472 2324
https://twitter.com/VisitScotNews

Source: VisitScotland