Scotland’s newest tourism ideas for 2011 to include Agritourism and Kite Surfaris

Four awards are being made through Scottish Enterprise’s Tourism Innovation Fund, which aims to encourage tourism operators in Scotland to develop new and creative business ideas to achieve growth and deliver innovative and exciting experiences for Scotland’s visitors.

Individual companies or groups of companies working together are invited to submit their business ideas to help them to commercialise new tourism projects that can make the most of Scotland’s key strengths. Successful applicants receive match-funding of up to £30,000 and one-to-one professional business support.

Julie Franchetti, Scottish Enterprise’s tourism innovation manager, commented: “Scotland has unique tourism assets, however the challenge is to use these in innovative ways that will grow our tourism offering to visitors in both number and quality of offerings.

“The four awards being made are all sound ideas based on an understanding of the market, and which cater to visitor needs, and should lead to increased profitability and improved competitiveness for the companies.

“Scotland’s tourism industry already has around 20,000 businesses, supporting nearly 204,000 jobs directly and indirectly. It generates nearly £4.1 billion for Scotland’s economy ever year, accounting for five per cent of Scotland’s GDP.

“By encouraging higher levels of innovation and collaboration, we can continue to improve Scotland’s tourism experience and attract more visitors in new and exciting ways, growing the sector even further.”

Tourism Minister Jim Mather added: "Scottish tourism demonstrated incredible resilience, innovation and flexibility in 2010 in responding to challenges like ash cloud disruptions, the threat of airline strikes and the fragile economic climate. It makes strong economic sense to build on these strengths in 2011 by supporting the development and delivery of new and innovative tourism products and services that will attract even more visitors and strengthen growth in the sector. That is exactly what is being achieved through Scottish Enterprise's Tourism Innovation Fund."

This is the 5th round of Tourism Innovation Fund awards. The next deadline for applications is 28 January 2011 with the winners chosen by a panel of judges.

The winning projects are:

Packaged Agritourism Experiences (Alba Travel & Events, Fife - Christine Seaton)

Scottish Farmhouse Holidays is a unique opportunity to collectively market farm-stay providers of Scottish Farmhouse Holidays (which was bought by Alba Travel in 2009) and will offer packaged ‘Agritourism’ experiences. The project aims to develop a programme with the working farms within the Scottish Farmhouse Holidays portfolio that truly enhances the visitor experience and shares best practice, and will develop a useful guide of all farm-related shops, events and activities throughout the annual calendar and to extend the existing portfolio in 2011 and 2012.

Roslyn Chapel animation project (Rosslyn Chapel, Midlothian - Diane Stein)

Rosslyn Chapel will install a projected animated film which will tell the story of the architectural accomplishment and craftsmanship of the building. As there is restricted daylight in the area, a perimeter backlit light-box treatment is proposed, which will stretch along the East wall of the chapel. The animation will come from 3D laser scanning of the Chapel by Glasgow School of Art Digital Design Studio, demonstrating cutting edge technology and its use in the effective interpretation for an iconic visitor attraction.

Scotland Kite Surfari (Scotland Kiteboarding, Glasgow - Calum and Graham Handley)

Calum and Graham Handley are developing ‘Scotland Kite Surfari’ which will offer packaged tours to the world’s kiteboarding community to enjoy Scotland’s near perfect conditions for this sport, amid stunning scenery. Kiteboarding is growing at an exponential rate and, with no other business in Scotland currently offering it, has an opportunity to position Scotland as a location of choice for this extreme sport’s growing popularity.

Glasgow Cinema City (Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow - Liana Marletta)

‘Glasgow Cinema City’ is an innovative new online tourism service and series of products that will develop and promote Glasgow as a dynamic destination to UK and international markets. Developed by Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT), this project capitalises Glasgow’s moving image industry and uniquely distinctive cinema culture and heritage. It will capitalise on some of the unique building and landmarks from cinematic history in Glasgow, as well as offer access to a range of film themed experiences for film lovers and weekend break visitors alike. GFT screens film events, including film festivals, and is also a conference hire centre and has public café bar facilities with art exhibition space.