Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight returns 3rd-18th September
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, 2016-Aug-23 — /Travel PR News/ — Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight returns 3rd-18th September following a hiatus during Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink 2015. The nationwide event supports and promotes Scotland’s produce and the people who grow, make, cook and sell it.
The focus of this year’s celebration are our primary producer ‘food heroes’ – the farmers and fishermen whose hard work is the foundation of our Land of Food and Drink. They are the backbone of the sector, growing, rearing, harvesting and catching top quality raw ingredients for suppliers to produce their goods; delivered to chefs to create beautiful dishes and to consumers to enjoy the finished product. They are integral to the continued success of our £14.3bn Scottish food and drink industry which boasts iconic world-class products including Scotch Beef, Lamb and Whisky along with global brands and dedicated producers.
Scotland’s fantastic larder of naturally healthy produce offers strong provenance across seafood, beef, lamb, venison, diary, whisky, confectionery, soft fruits and oat based products. Impressively, 75% of Scotland’s land mass is under agricultural production while 65,000 people are directly employed in agriculture (NFUS). The Scottish seafood industry consists of 2,000 boats and 5,000 fisherman (SDI) in addition the worldwide retail value of Scottish farmed salmon is more than £1bn (SSPO).
Scotland Food & Drink Chief Project Manager Fiona Richmond said:
“Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight is a fantastic celebration of our country’s larder. Scotland is rightly recognised as a Land of Food and Drink and I encourage people to discover for themselves the producers that merit this reputation.
“With more than 200 events across the country, I urge everyone to get behind the Fortnight. Other supporters and participants include supermarkets, independent retailers, farm shops, visitor attractions, food festivals and restaurants so it’s easy to sample produce and learn more about our Scottish food and drink heroes!”
Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight is managed by commercially-focused independent industry leadership organisation Scotland Food & Drink and is funded by the Scottish Government. The celebration takes place during the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design, providing a great opportunity to showcase the wealth of innovation in the industry from talented producers who combine tradition with innovation. Innovative Scottish products include healthy seaweed seasonings to the production of courgetti and cauliflower rice.
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland said:
“Promoting our food and drink is a recipe for success with two out of three visitors to Scotland stating that the quality of food is an important factor when deciding where to go on holiday.
“Last year, the Year of Food and Drink raised the profile of Scotland’s outstanding natural larder to unprecedented levels and Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight is another chance to further develop our country’s reputation as a Land of Food and Drink.
“Taking place in the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design, the Fortnight also provides a great opportunity to shine a spotlight on the abundance of innovation on show in the food and drink industry with innovative events such as the first ever West Highland Food Festival leading a packed programme of events for locals and visitors alike to enjoy this September.”
Visit the Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight website at http://fooddrinkfort.scot, follow @scotfoodfort and engage with the discussion using #scotfoodfort.
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:
- 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.
- 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
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).
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
- Join the conversation at #IAD2016
- Events can join the 2016 Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design Partner Programme throughout the year by visiting http://www.eventscotland.org/YIAD_partner_programme
SOURCE: VisitScotland