Hundreds of Outlander fans from around the world have descended on Scotland to visit sites featured in the hit US television series
EDINBURGH, Scotland, 2017-May-17 — /Travel PR News/ — More than 200 Outlander fans will gather in the Highlands this weekend for this year’s Outlandish Gathering.
Fans of the books and television series from 15 countries will gather at the MacDonald Aviemore Resort this Friday 19 May until Sunday 21 May.
The event is once again organised by Outlandish UK, the principal UK group of enthusiasts of Diana Gabaldon’s creation.
This year’s Gathering involves myriad activities, beginning with guided tours of Outlander locations, including Culloden Battlefield and Beauly Priory. Saturday will be a convention day, which will include demonstrations, speakers and performances relating to the show along with vendors selling high-quality crafts and a charity raffle.
As part of the Gathering, one of VisitScotland’s distinctive ‘Coo Vans’ will be on site, along with two Coo-Visers, to provide advice on Scotland as well as other Outlander related attractions to discover.
This will be followed in the evening by a formal dinner and live music from Whisky Kiss.
An Outlander-themed treasure hunt will take place on Sunday, with funds raised to benefit Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, which is patronised by Outlander star Sam Heughan. Since its inception in 2014, Outlandish UK has raised over £25,000 for the group’s sponsored charities of Bloodwise, World Child Cancer and youth Theatre Arts Scotland.
Jenni Steele, Film and Cultural Tourism Manager at VisitScotland, said: “The Outlandish Gathering is a fantastic way for fans of the books and the show to enjoy all things Jamie and Claire in the land that inspired Outlander. I’m sure the event will be another huge success and will help keep the ‘droughtlander’ pangs at bay until the much-anticipated season three hits our screens later in the year.”
Booking for the 2017 UK Outlander Gathering is now closed.
To find out more about Outlander locations in Scotland, go to www.visitscotland.com/outlander
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
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
SOURCE: VisitScotland