A roadshow of nine workshops is about to materialise in all parts of Argyll and the Isles as the region’s Tourism Cooperative drives up and ships in to provide updates of recent pan-Argyll tourism projects and activities.
These events will also get everyone involved in tourism sharing ideas and helping to shape up the future of the industry in a part of Scotland that could hardly be better equipped to take its place as a major league player.
In each of the nine locations there will be a workshop during the afternoon and a drop-in session running into the early evening. Each event is organised in partnership with the local marketing groups and tourism associations.
The programme of locations, venues and times is set out on the flyer, reproduced below. Please note that this is the current schedule and that the schedule for Bute has changed a little from the previously published version – because of ferry times.
Each session will explore the nature of the local issues and opportunities for tourism development and the steps to be taken to help grow tourism.
This will allow AITC to produce Tourism Argyll & the Isles 2020, the local grass roots response to the national tourism strategy.
The workshops will also explore how to enrich the content on the new AITC website, Explore Argyll and the suite of eight area and six activity leaflets which will soon be published by the cooperative.
The workshops are being led by Mike Story and Carron Tobin, respectively CEO and Project Manager of Argyll & the Isles Tourism Co-operative Ltd.
At each event they will be joined by a Board Member of AITC and key players from the local marketing group, Business Gateway, Visit Scotland and other partners.
Connie Lovell, Co-Chair of the Co-operative and CEO at Mount Stuart says: ‘These workshops are a core element of our ‘stronger together’ initiative and will provide a great opportunity for AITC to hear first-hand what the key issues are that each area is facing and to jointly explore the opportunities available to grow tourism locally and regionally’.
Mike Story says: ‘Both the region as a whole and individual businesses will benefit from collaborative working. This is an opportunity for anyone involved in the industry, directly or indirectly, to exchange views at a local level and learn more about how they can work together to take advantage of regional and national strategy. We really encourage everyone involved in tourism locally to come along to their local event.’
To book a place at your local workshop go to the Explore Argyll website page here.
This programme of workshops is being funded by Argyll & Bute Council, Highlands & the Islands Enterprise, Argyll & the Islands LEADER programme and the Visitscotland Growth Fund. Each event is being directly supported by Business Gateway, the local VisitScotland team, Skills Development Scotland and Calmac.
