Jim Clarkson (dark suit), VisitScotland Regional Director, presents Earn River Cottage’s Five Star Quality Assurance Award to Alexander and Donryn Dewar.
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, 2016-Sep-05 — /Travel PR News/ — A luxurious self-catering cottage, located just outside Perth, has been awarded five stars by VisitScotland.
Earn River Cottage, set in the heart of the Dupplin Estate, was presented with VisitScotland’s Quality Assuranceaccolade in recognition of its exceptional standards.
Restored earlier this year, the traditional stone built cottage is a perfect location to explore Perthshire’s great outdoors with private woodlands to the front of the house and the banks of the River Earn just a short walk from the property.
The River Earn also offers guests a first class fishing experience with trout and grayling fishing available on the Aberdalgie and Forteviot beats of the river.
The Dupplin Estate, which has been in the same family for over 100 years, was originally bought by John Dewar, the first Baron of Forteviot and son of John Dewar, the founder of Dewar’s Whisky.
Home to the Forteviot village, an A listed model village designed by architect James Miller in 1923, the historic estate is believed to be one of the earliest royal centres in Scotland with the death of Kenneth MacAlpin, a 9thcentury King of Scotland, recorded on the grounds.
VisitScotland’s Five Star Quality Assurance Award recognises serviced accommodation businesses which achieve the highest levels of excellence. Businesses that achieve the award excel in areas of customer care and hospitality, showing evidence of a real commitment to development and training.
Donryn Dewar, owner of Earn River Cottage, said:
“Earn River cottage was originally a mill and after the war was used to house the Gillie. Unfortunately it was abandoned for years but it’s in such a gorgeous location that we felt it an ideal place for a relaxing getaway and decided we had to restore it.
“We are absolutely delighted with the way we have been able to keep the traditional aspects of the building and add all the modern facilities you would expect. We were extremely pleased when we heard that Visit Scotland were awarding us 5 Star status. It makes all the hard work undertaken by everyone involved in the restoration totally worthwhile. We’re all very proud!
“We’re really looking forward to welcoming guests to Earn River and we’re sure they’ll love the cottage and the peaceful surroundings as much as we do.”
Jim Clarkson, Regional Director, VisitScotland, said:
“It is fantastic to see such a historically significant site in Perthshire now boast a five star accommodation offering for visitors. The Dewar family have done a tremendous job renovating the cottage in recent years and the Five Star Quality Assurance Award is well deserved.
“Developed and improved for over 30 years, our Quality Assurance schemes are world-leading and provide a trusted, independent and impartial source of information for visitors. They allow you to not just meet visitor expectations, but exceed them.”
For more information about Earn River Cottage, visit www.earnrivercottage.co.uk
For more information on VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance scheme, please visit www.visitscotland.org/quality_assurance.aspx
Notes to Editors
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- 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:
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
- 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
- Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
- 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.
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Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016
- 2016 will shine a spotlight on Scotland’s achievements in innovation, architecture and design through a wide-ranging, variety of new and existing activity.
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design begins on 1 January 2016 and ends on 31 December 2016 and will build on the momentum generated by the 2015 Year of Food and Drink as well as previous years including Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
- Through a series of exciting events and activity, the year will showcase Scotland’s position as an “innovation nation”, its outstanding built heritage, and its thriving, internationally acclaimed creative industries sector.
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, Architecture + Design Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).
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- Join the conversation at #IAD2016
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CONTACT
Stewart Ross
Corporate Press Officer – National
Agri-tourism, North Region, Sports Tourism
Stewart.Ross@visitscotland.com
0131 472 2052
Out of hours – 0131 472 2324
SOURCE: VisitScotland