New campaign shows Scotland’s a cool place to be for wintersports

In Scotland, there’s definitely ‘snow’ place like home.

A new £60,000 marketing campaign which aims to promote Scottish snowsports to new audiences has received a major boost from the national tourism organisation.

The Scottish Snowsports Marketing Group (SSMG) has been awarded £30,000 from the VisitScotland Growth Fund to help promote Scotland as a destination of choice for skiing and snowboarding under their brand of Ski-Scotland.

The 12-month digital drive will utilise video and social media channels to showcase the unique offering in Scotland – quality facilities, easy accessibility and beautiful scenery – to target snowsports enthusiasts living in areas of England, Northern Ireland and the Scottish central belt who travel overseas for their annual ski or snowboarding holiday.

The Glenshee Ski Centre

The campaign will use video footage, develop partnerships with industry and influencers to increase their social media reach and feature a ‘Tartan Freestyle tour’ of kilted, elite Scottish athletes to help provide a boost to the Scottish snowsports industry following a challenging 2016-17 season.

It will also highlight the accessibility, good value, environmentally-friendly and ‘no fuss’ aspects of a Scottish snowsports holiday and is already creating a real buzz based on this winter’s excellent early season snow. This will continue in the run-up to season 2018-19.

The initiative will promote all of Scotland’s snowsports areas: CairnGorm Mountain, Glencoe Mountain, Glenshee, Nevis Range and The Lecht ski centres which will also benefit other nearby businesses.

It is estimated that a successful Scottish snowsports season can contribute more than £37million to the economy, of which only £7.5million is spent ‘on the hill’ at the snowsports resorts with the remainder spent on accommodation, shopping, alternative activities, eating and drinking and on transport, particularly fuel for the car.

Steve Duncan, VisitScotland marketing manager, said: ‘We promote Scotland with Scotland. Partnership and collaboration is at the heart of Scottish tourism and VisitScotland works with local industry to develop and deliver initiatives that grow the visitor economy.

Snowboarders jumping in the Cairngorms

‘We have a long and successful track record of working with the Scottish Snowsports Marketing Group and are delighted to support their exciting new campaign by the Scottish Snowsports Marketing Group.

‘Not only does Scotland offer the best outdoor skiing and snowboarding in the UK, but the resorts are all easily accessible and boast some of the most breath-taking scenery in the world Now is a great time to head for Scotland’s snowy slopes as there’s some fantastic snow conditions at the moment and overseas trips are likely to be more costly this year as a result of the weak pound.’

Chair of Ski-Scotland Andy Meldrum said: ‘We are delighted to have this support from VisitScotland Growth Fund which will allow us to use innovative activities and benefit from the huge reach of social media to promote the great skiing and snowboarding which Scotland’s mountains offer. Already, due to excellent early snow, we are benefitting from this new activity.’

The VisitScotland Growth Fund supports collaborative tourism marketing projects which focus on growth and ensure that visitors experience the true Spirit of Scotland. To be eligible for a Growth Fund award, applicants must place a strong emphasis on digital marketing and the creation of digital content assets

For more information on Ski-Scotland and for the latest conditions reports direct from the slopes, click HERE.