Spring is in the air and tourism businesses will now be looking ahead to a busy summer. But before the hurly burly of the ‘main’ tourist season, the Tourism and Environment Forum (TEF) would like to encourage businesses to review how the winter season has gone and what might be done differently next year. The Tourism and Environment Forum’s new leaflet “Wake up to winter” can help with this.

The new leaflet looks at some examples of tourism businesses that are demonstrating best practice in tapping into the growing winter market. Successful promotion of the winter season can increase income, allow staff to be retained, and bring visitors to the local area- good for the business, good for staff and good for the sustainability of the local economy. In some areas tourism businesses also provide year round services that are of benefit to the local community, such as a restaurant and meeting facilities.

Achieving a more even spread of visitors throughout the year will make a significant contribution towards the two challenges in the new national tourism policy, “Tourism for Change”. These are that Scotland should be established as Europe’s most sustainable destination by 2015 and that revenue returns should increase in real terms by 50%.

You can download a copy of the leaflet from our publications page or click here for individual case studies. If you wish to have a paper copy of the leaflet please contact Sandy Dear on sandy.dear@visitscotland.com or 01463 723021.