Venture North is a fledgling tourism body promoting travel to Caithness and Sutherland in the far north of Scotland. Travel Perspective was invited to share current thinking in community tourism marketing from the ground up - people, strengths and stories #venturenorthbyte

1. +
Dornoch
March 13,
2016
Steve Keenan
Travel
Perspective
How
communities can
thrive in telling
their own tourism
stories..

2. +

3. +
Lilian Groves, Durham Cathedral

4. +
Welsh Valley ambassadors

5. +
The Welsh Valleys: valleys.co.uk

6. +
Your people

7. +
Your people

8. +
William Bakker, Think! Social
 “Be clear about what
you offer. Make a
stand about what you
are and what you
focus on. Don’t try to
be something to
everyone. Have a
laser focus and own
what you’re best at.
 “Self determination is
key for defining how
you want visitors to
see a place…”

9. +
New role for national tourist boards
 To facilitate creativity
 “One of the single
biggest requirements for
growth lies in our own
hands: working together
as
a collective to a common
agenda” - (Scottish
Tourism Alliance 2020
Vision)

10. +
New role for national tourist boards
 To facilitate creativity
 To be a distributing
media company

11. +

12. +
New role for national tourist boards
 To facilitate creativity
 To be a distributing
media company
 To be a hub of digital
excellence to help the
entire DMO region
(Digital Tourism
Scotland, 2015)

13. +
Scottish Tourism Week 2016
Please follow us on Instagram at
scottishtourismweek and
remember to hashtag
#STW2016

14. +

15. +
How to be a better Instagrammer

16. +

17. +
Strengths of Venture North?
 Surf and seasports
 The weather: Northern Lights, dark skies, Shipping Forecast
 Birding and wildlife
 The 500 mile roadtrip: castles and history

18. +
The people

19. +
The people: Iceland Pt 2

20. +
Community tourism benefits

21. +
Venture North: the five year plan
 Work out what you stand for and what you excel at
 Create a digital community
 And a video/image team: colleges, brands, enthusiasts
 Support from national body: stats, research, support, money
 Work with your biggest supporters – ‘ambassadors’
 Identify who can write/edit, your Destination Reporters
 Liaise/share ideas with neighbours – eg., Moray Speyside
 Stick with it: digital will be top dog but will take time