Photo: Luskentyre Beach, Isle of Harris

Welcome to the latest VisitScotland eUpdate, giving you an overview of VisitScotland's current activities.

This month's sections:

• Business opportunities
• Specialist Business Opportunities
  
• Industry Events
  
• Research
• Marketing
  
• Quality & Standards
  
• General News
  
• EventScotland
  
• Visitscotland.com

Sign-up for your Business Opportunity Package

The BusinessOpportunity Package (BOP) broadly delivers the familiar activities and promotions previously accessed through Area Tourist Board membership.
It is an excellent starting point for your marketing activities with VisitScotland and can give you confidence that your business will be promoted effectively in key markets, namely:

• via local brochures;
  
• on www.visitscotland.com (including booking channels), and;
  
• in your local Tourist Information Centre.

Further information on the Business Opportunity Package and a downloadable booking form for the package is now available on scotexchange.net at http://www.scotexchange.net/bop

VisitScotland Challenge Fund Update

The VisitScotland Challenge Fund is designed to assist collaborative group marketing projects that attract more visitors to Scotland. It enables groups of tourism businesses to extend current marketing activity or test a new market or activity which could bring additional visitors. The Challenge Fund has an annual budget of £1,000,000 to support group marketing activity and applicants can apply for between £2,500 and £50,000 of funding.
In its first round, the Challenge Fund offered a total of almost £300,000 for twenty-nine group marketing projects, representing over 1000 businesses. The first round awardees are:

• ASBC Marketing Group
  
• Ayrshire and Arran's Hotels Association
  
• Best Western Edinburgh Hotels Collection
  
• Blair Atholl & Area Tourism Association
  
• Bute Marketing
  
• Cairngorm Visitor Attraction Group
  
• Crieff & Strathearn Partnership
  
• Dundee Food and Flower Festival
  
• East Lothian Tourism Attractions Group
  
• Experience Perthshire
  
• Falkirk District Town Centre Management
  
• Glasgow Restaurateurs' Association
  
• Golf Highland
  
• Hidden Lewis
  
• Highlands Loch Ness
  
• Irvine District Tourist Association
  
• Melrose Food Centre
  
• Midlothian Tourism Forum
  
• Outdoor Capital
  
• Outer Hebrides Food Producers Association
  
• Sail Scotland
  
• Scotland's Best B&Bs
  
• Scottish Racing
  
• Seafood Trail
  
• South Loch Lomond Marketing Group
  
• Strathglass Marketing Group
  
• Unique Venues of Edinburgh
  
• Visit Loch Ness Ltd

The deadline for the second round of Challenge Fund applications is 30 June; however, there will be a third round of applications in 2005. The deadline for the third round of applications is 31 October.

For further information on the VisitScotland Challenge Fund, please visit http://www.scotexchange.net/businessdevelopment/ecommerce_growth_-_businessdevelopment_-_funding/challenge_fund.htm

Business Learning Account Pilot

Business Learning Accounts is a pilot initiative that offers businesses with fewer than 50 employees information, advice and guidance, complemented by financial support for training. If you need support to identify and fill your business learning requirements and would like further information on this initiative, please visit: http://www.scotexchange.net/training/se_support/business_learning_accounts.htm

The Win Worldwide Guide

The value of international tourism to Scotland is expected to grow by seven per cent from £970 million in 2005 to over £1 million in 2008. The Win Worldwide Guide has been developed for businesses seeking to exploit international opportunities and win a slice of the lucrative overseas markets.

For further information on the Guide, please visit: http://www.scotexchange.net/businessdevelopment/improving_your_business_-_businessdevelopment_-_improving/the_win_worldwide_guide.htm

Tourism Cares for Tomorrow Summit Meeting - Scotland 19 & 20 October

Tourism Cares for Tomorrow is a non-profit organisation formed from the merger of United States Tour Operator Association's Travellers Conservation Foundation and National Tour Association's National Tourism Foundation. USTOA's membership represents 125 brand names of which over 80% currently operate in the UK at some level, and the NTA have over 600 tour operator members with just under 100 active with UK products. In addition VisitScotland have invited SITE members along to the event and are targeting 20 incentive operators to attend this event.

From 19 to 23 October 2005, VisitScotland is hosting the TCFT summit meeting, bringing around 80 major tour operators and incentive buyers from the US to Scotland for a workshop, golf tournament and gala dinner. The workshop is scheduled for the morning of the 20 October, which will provide suppliers with the opportunity of attending the following:

19 October: Networking Dinner
20 October: General Session - North American industry update
20 October: one to one business sessions.

This event will be limited to 2 delegates per supplier. Cost £495 + VAT for 2 delegates or £400 + VAT for 1 delegate.
For more information please contact melanie.angus@visitscotland.com

Luxury Travel Expo 2005 - New York, 15 - 17 September

Produced by Travel Agent Magazine and Premier Hotels & Resorts, Luxury Travel Expo is the industry's largest gathering of luxury travel professionals. Now in its seventh year, it has become the signature event for every professional involved in the luxury market.

Luxury Travel Expo attracts both luxury travel professionals and affluent consumers who book your services. Last year's show gathered over 1000 luxury agents and 9000 consumers under one roof. 97% travel agent attendees from last year's event sell luxury travel and 48% were high-level travel professionals (i.e. Owners, Presidents, Managers, Vice Presidents, Directors).

VisitScotland has reserved an island space in the UK & Ireland area with enough room for up to five Scottish suppliers. For more information please contact linda.mcallister@visitscotland.com

North America - Agent@Home / Modern Agent

ThVisitScotland has committed to a year's worth of promotional activities with PMG media, who publish Agent@Home Magazine, Modern Agent Magazine and the ModernAgent.com website. A key element of this activity is the distribution of six Scotland destination e-Newsletters to PMG's database of 50,000 agents over the coming year. We would like to offer suppliers the opportunity to advertise in these newsletters for the following rates:

2 issues - £150 + VAT
4 issues - £275 + VAT

Your feature in the e-Newsletter will comprise 250 words of copy, your logo, image and direct contact details. Features should be geared towards the travel trade.

The next edition is to be issued in July, so please reply as soon as possible.
For further details please email linda.mcallister@visitscotland.com

BookingScotland.com

Do you want a cost effective way of promoting your product/service to the North America, GCC/Middle East, Australasia and Asia/Pacific regions?

• Scotland attracts over 0.5 million North American visitors every year, making this our largest overseas market
  
• 80,000 visitors from Asia/Pacific
  
• 144,000 visitors from Australasia
  
• 30,000 visitors from GCC/Middle East

Then sign up to BookingScotland.com, VisitScotland's interactive travel trade website, giving you the opportunity to reach key travel trade representatives who can recommend YOU to their clients.

BookingScotland.com is promoted to thousands of travel agents, tour operators and wholesalers, including over 3000 dedicated SCOTS agents in North America who have studied how to sell Scottish vacations.

For just £295 + VAT per annum, you can have an advert on the site, which you can update up to four times per year, and contribute to a fortnightly e-Newsletter, informing the travel trade about the latest developments in your vacation products. You will receive regular updates about your advert's performance to make sure you get the most from your investment.

BookingScotland.com is promoted in all of the above markets as a key resource for the travel trade in newsletters, e-blasts, print advertising and sales presentations. Make sure your business is part of it! Contact linda.mcallister@visitscotland.com for more information.

Consumer E-newsletter, North America

VisitScotland regularly sends out e-newsletters to our database of approx. 60,000 North American consumers.

To participate please email approx 80 words of copy with an offer for US consumers. This offer can be price-led (e.g. $100 off if you book by... or 2 for the price of 1, etc.) We will link directly to your site and include your logo and a photograph. The cost is £125 + VAT per entry.

Here is a link to the e-newsletter we sent out in December, as an example: http://www.toscotland.com/newsletter/newsletter20040904.html
All submissions should be emailed to tradepromotions@visitscotland.com as soon as possible. Or contact Linda.mcallister@visitscotland.com for more information.

Golf Exhibition

The Deutsche Bank SAP Open 2005 takes place in Hamburg on the 21 - 24 July. This is a major tournament attracting the biggest and best world players. Golf in Germany is growing year on year and remains a key market for Scotland.

VisitScotland will be exhibiting at the event under a "Scotland - The Home of Golf" banner. We have additional space left for a couple of industry partners to attend this show. This show would be of particular interest to golf marketing groups, golf tour operators, accommodation providers and golf courses. Partners will be provided with a counter, chairs and company logo.

For further information, please contact Lesley Cambridge on 0131 472 2379 or email lesley.cambridge@visitscotland.com.

Gr8 Care Workshops

Scottish Enterprise, in partnership with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, has developed a half day programme for accommodation providers directly affected by the G8 Summit, and the needs of the international visitors attending. The Gr8 Care Workshops will run throughout June.

For further information, please visit http://www.scotexchange.net/events_conferences/eventsconferences_events_list-new/event_item.htm?eventID=34745

Moscow International Travel and Tourism Exhibition (MITT) 23-26 March 2005

VisitScotland was present for the second year at MITT, the biggest travel trade and consumer fair in Eastern Europe. Around 2,500 companies exhibited from 110 countries world wide, with the exhibition attracting 98,000 visitors. For the first time, VisitScotland took six Scottish partners onto the Scottish corner of the VisitBritain stand.

VisitScotland had more than 1200 trade visitors to its stand each day and the public day was even busier. Stand partners such as The Town House Company, Historic Scotland and Discovering Distilleries have already received enquiries or product purchases as a direct result of attendance at the show.

VisitScotland also formed a partnership with the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) to co-host a press trip to the event. Resulting press coverage was extremely positive. Coverage included articles on VisitScotland's marketing activity in Russia and the NMS's work with the Hermitage State Museum in St Petersburg to host an exhibition in Edinburgh on The Last Tsar and Tsarina, Nicholas and Alexandra.

What will the tourist look like in 2015?

The world is "doing" tourism, whether it is Dubai or the South Pole. Nearly every country in the world has a tourism offer and promotes tourism as an area of economic activity. Even Afghanistan has a tourism offering of the 'last unclimbed mountains of the world'. The internet allows tourists to become their own travel agent.
By mapping the key mega-trends which shape the world, and then identifying how these trends impact upon the consumer through clustering them as political, social, technological and individual trends, we can see that four scenarios emerge, which capture the essence of the future tourist and what this means for Scottish tourism.

• Tourist 1: The "right royal treatment" scenario describes the business traveller as sophisticated, demanding and time sensitive.
  
• Tourist 2: The "tourist living local" scenario describes the authentic tourist as someone who is discerning but wants to 'live local'.
  
• Tourist 3: The "living the low-brow and high-brow life" scenario reflects cultural capital driven by an educated, well travelled consumer who is more concerned with experience than with material possessions.
  
• Tourist 4: The "Asia gets going" scenario reflects the realisation that the middle classes of China will be driving the growth of tourism across the world by 2015.

To download the full report - Tomorrow's World, Consumer, Tourist, Please visit:
http://www.scotexchange.net/kym_tomorrow_2015_tourist

Sunday Mail Summer Campaign Returns for Third Year

AsVisitScotland has teamed up with the Sunday Mail and the Daily Record to promote Scotland to the Scots again this summer. Building on the success the campaign has enjoyed over two consecutive years, we will once more be encouraging families north of the border to consider their own back yard for holidays, short breaks and even days out while school's out for the summer.
Following two pre-promotional pages in the Daily Record designed to set the scene, the campaign kicked off properly on Sunday 5 June, with the first of four 8-page supplements. Running weekly throughout June, the supplements will follow the themes of Fun Scotland, Wild Scotland and Great Scotland with the final supplement - Your Scotland - featuring readers' photographs of memorable trips taken in Scotland as part of a competition to win a weekend break to Scotland.
For more details on the summer campaign, please contact Nicol Nicolson on 0131 472 2004 or email nicol.nicolson@visitscotland.com.

New Rickshaw Promotes VisitScotland Centre in London

The Highland Store (VisitScotland London's retail partner) has got a great new 'tool' to promote both the VisitScotland centre and the Highland Store itself - a rickshaw! With the capacity to accommodate 2 passengers, the rickshaw will be pedalled between the Highland Store on Great Russell Street and the VisitScotland London office on Cockspur Street and will also be 'paraded' around Trafalgar Square.

700th Anniversary of William Wallace

A summer of events has been planned to mark the 700th anniversary of the death of William Walllace.

In support of this special anniversary, which takes place on 23 August 2005, VisitScotland is undertaking a number of PR and marketing activities, including features on relevant VisitScotland websites and communication materials. VisitScotland will also be working with VisitBritain Sydney during August to promote Scotland in Australia, with a special focus on the 700th Anniversary of William Wallace.

Key events taking place to celebrate the 700th Anniversary of William Wallace include:

• A Celebration of William Wallace, Edinburgh Castle, Sunday 1 May. Fire & Sword present a series of entertaining presentations covering how Wallace would have lived and what he would have really looked like.
  
• Music at the Tollbooth in Stirling throughout the summer
  
• Faces of Wallace exhibition at Stirling's Smith Art Gallery, 22 July - 2 October
• Rare documents with a Wallace connection on display at Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh (Declaration of Arbroath, Ayr Manuscript and Lubeck Letter). 15 August - 9 September
  
• Wallace lecture at Edinburgh International Book Festival, 17 August. Sponsored by the Executive, it will be entitled "Wallace the Man and the Myth".
  
• William Wallace Extravaganza, Stirling Castle and Argyll's Lodging, Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September. The event will cover everything from combat displays, an authentic medieval camp and market scene, drama, and music.

Full details of all events are available on http://www.wallace-manandmyth.org/

Scottish Borders Launches Golf Tourism Drive

Chair of the Scottish Borders Tourism Partnership, Ken McCartney launched the latest version of the region's award-winning Freedom of the Fairways golf passport last month, which is hoped to generate around £1.5 million in tourism revenue for the local economy.
Now in its twelfth year, the scheme is the most popular of its kind in Scotland and attracts visitors to the region by offering special rates at the region's 21 courses through its 3 Day and 5 Day golf passports.

Discounted versions of the passes are available for over 55s and under 17s.Sales figures for this year's passport are already encouraging and marketing is well underway with a Golf Guide already having been distributed to VisitScotland Borders' existing customer database and additional direct mail activity, promotional advertising and PR support also ongoing.

EatScotland - food quality assurance scheme

Over 150 pilot visits have been carried out for the revised food quality assurance scheme - EatScotland. Businesses participating in the pilot scheme were given the opportunity to feedback via an anonymous online survey and the preliminary findings have been compiled.

Pilot participants were also invited to attend feedback meetings in Oban, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness. Constructive feedback from these meetings has been invaluable and will help tailor the EatScotland scheme to meet the needs of the Trade as well as the Consumer.

The next steps …
The criteria for participants in the scheme will be finalised after any amendments arising from the above feedback have been incorporated. Promotional goods are also being designed and the EatScotland scheme is now open to all food businesses.

Benefits of participation include:

• An annual food quality assessment
  
• Individual feedback on each area assessed via a written report.
• An entry on EatScotland.com web site
  
• Window stickers and certificate depicting the EatScotland logo.
  
• The use of EatScotland logo for marketing purposes in web and print.

For further information, including the criteria, application form and prices please visit www.sfqc.co.uk/eatscotland

If you are interested in having the quality of your food business assessed please call Rachel McCarthy on 0131 3356608, or e mail rachel.mccarthy@sfqc.co.uk

JOIN EATSCOTLAND by end of June and receive 15 months participation for the price of 12!

The Green Guide

VisitScotland's Quality and Standards team has produced a publication containing the details of over 400 Scottish businesses who have achieved a Green Tourism Business scheme award. Designed for visitors to Scotland with an interest in environmental sustainability, the publication - The Green Guide - is full of interesting environmental facts and figures, beautifully Scottish and thought-provoking images as well as contacts for further information.

The guide is available from www.visitscotland.com, Tourist Information Centres and via specialist promotions.

One stop shop for Accessible Tourism in Europe (OSSATE)

OSSATE is a project that aims to implement an information service providing national and regional content on Accessible Tourist Venues, Sites and Accommodation, initially from 2 EU Member States: Greece and the UK. Two years of European funding has been secured to develop this resource.

Quality and Standards attended the recent OSSATE conference in London where delegates were presented with experiences of successful European accessibility initiatives, e.g. the provision made at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004, and a Flanders Accessible Tourism Initiative. Interested parties, as delegates, debated challenges to information via new media/CRM/, the commercial opportunities of 45 million Europeans with some form of disability and presenting a holistic destination experience for visitors with access requirements.

For further information on this project, please visit www.ossate.org

Launch of Ancestral Tourists Welcome Scheme

Genealogy has been identified by VisitScotland as a growing and important niche market in Scotland, with an estimated 50 million people worldwide having claim to Scottish ancestry. Research shows that over 20% of American visitors cite "family roots and ancestry" as their main motivation for travel to Scotland. The Ancestral Tourists Welcome Scheme is both a VisitScotland Quality & Standards welcome scheme and a training course. The course has been developed by Quality & Standards and Tourist Board Training, in association with Sector Development, ancestralscotland.com and the Ancestral Tourism steering group. The training course ensures that only those who are passionate and committed to meeting, or preferably exceeding, the needs of the ancestral tourists are eligible to display and use the promotional material.

Entry to the Ancestral Tourists Welcome Scheme is via the one-day Ancestral Tourism course developed by Tourist Board Training (TBT). The course focuses on people in frontline tourism businesses, and is provided by a team of six trainers for a fee of around £50. Members of the scheme will receive a window sticker, certificate and lapel badge, and their award will be displayed in certain VisitScotland, and network literature as appropriate. The course is initially available in the Scottish Enterprise area, and will be extended to the Highlands & Islands Enterprise area in the near future. Applications to the scheme will be handled by TBT, who will organise the training course.

For further information, please contact:
Tourist Board Training
22A Eglinton Street, Irvine, Ayrshire. KA12 8AS
Tel: 01294 313006, Fax: 01294 313016
Email: tbt@tbt.visitscotland.com

G8 Summit

As many of you will know, Gleneagles is hosting the 2005 G8 Summit which takes place from 6 to 8 July. As host to the G8 Summit, Scotland will see considerable benefits. As well as a fantastic opportunity to put Scotland on the international map, there will also be both an immediate financial benefit from the large influx of media and delegates staying in Scotland and longer term financial benefits for Scottish businesses.
To maximise the potential benefits of the G8 Summit in Scotland, VisitScotland is working closely with the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise, business organisations and others to ensure media and delegates leave with a favourable impression of Scotland.
Key activities that VisitScotland are involved in include:

• The placement of the Scottish Village at Gleneagles to act as an exhibition and information centre about Scotland
  
• Organisation of press trips for international journalists
  
• Provision of a reception and information desk manned by VisitScotland Tourist Information Centre staff for delegates and media
  
• Links from visitscotland.com to G8 and visa versa
  
• Involvement in communications planning
  
• Follow up promotional campaigns

Further information on the G8 Summit and VisitScotland's involvement can be found on www.scotexchange.net/g8summit.

VisitScotland Aberdeen Scoops Top Award

VisitScotland Aberdeen scooped a top tourism award at the CIS Excellence Awards held in the Glasgow Hilton last week.
Dan Murray of VisitScotland picked up the solid bronze trophy on behalf of the partners involved in 'Scotland's Finest Flavours'.
The Food and Drink Tourism Initiative is a joint funded project between Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, The Moray Council, Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise Grampian, VisitScotland and the European Economic Development Fund, as well as The Grampian Food Forum.
The project currently has 47 industry partners, ranging from food producers and whisky distilleries to restaurants, tearooms and food retail outlets.
For further information on Scotland's Finest Flavours, please contact
Dan Murray on 01224 288813 or email dan.murray@visitscotland.com

Borders Set to be Citroen Central

Over 3,000 Citroën 2CV cars are set to descend on the Scottish Borders this summer as part of a World Meeting of 2CV "friends" which is expected to benefit the local economy to the tune of £1.4 million.

Floors Castle in Kelso will provide the stunning backdrop for the gathering which is set to attract over 7,000 visitors and will run 26 - 31 July. This is the first time in twenty years that the UK has hosted the event which takes place every two years.So far, 2CV enthusiasts from as far afield as New Zealand, America, Japan, Canada, Slovenia and Luxembourg have announced their plans to attend, joining representatives from France, Germany, the UK and many other countries.

The Water of Life Flows through Faskally Wood

Perthshire's legendary Enchanted Forest light and sound extravaganza takes place this year from October 21, to November 6, in the beautiful Faskally Wood near Pitlochry. Picking up on the significance of Loch Faskally within the local landscape, the 2005 event will be centred on the Water of Life.

Visitors arriving at Faskally Wood will follow an illuminated pathway down to a loch side viewing area. From here, the audience will be treated to a spectacular sound and light show - where screens floating on the loch will take viewers through a multi-layered portrayal of the water cycle.

After this 'show', the audience will be free to wander along the loch side path, where they will encounter a flow of light and sound vignettes.
Enchanted Forest 2005 is the fourth in an increasingly successful line of annual events organised by Perthshire's Big Tree Country initiative, a partnership approach to improving and promoting the rich woodland heritage of Perthshire, and supported by EventScotland. The 2004 event at The Hermitage in Dunkeld attracted over 10,000 people.

Tickets for The Enchanted Forest should be pre-booked and are available now through Pitlochry Festival Theatre Box Office or Perthshire Box Office. For bookings and ticket information call 01796 484626 or 01738 621031 respectively.
For further information about The Enchanted Forest visit www.perthshire.co.uk/enchantedforest.

New Area Directors

Two new area directors have been confirmed in post. Patrick O'Shaughnessy, formerly business relationship and marketing manager at the VisitScotland Dumfries Office, has been appointed as area director for the VisitScotland Dundee office. Meanwhile, Casia Zajac, formerly communications manager at the VisitScotland Highlands Office, has been appointed as area director for VisitScotland's London Office.

Fraud Warning

It has come to our attention that there are two bogus salesmen operating throughout Scotland. They are targeting accommodation providers where they are trying to sell high pressure cleaning equipment to clean mattresses at a cost of 3,000. They are stating that this is a requirement of the Tourist Board regulations. We also believe they are leaving without paying for overnight accommodation.

Please be aware this is not a VisitScotland regulation.

People 1st - An Overview

People 1st is the employer-led organisation at the heart of the skills agenda in Scotland and the UK for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector. It exists to reduce skills gaps and shortages by improving businesses' productivity and profitability and invidiuals' employability. Most importantly, it provides a vital link between government, businesses and the learning community.

If you would like to find out more about People 1st, please visit
http://www.scotexchange.net/training/training_-_training_-_training-help/people_1st.htm

New Chair for the Scottish Tourism Forum Announced

The Scottish Tourism Forum Board has appointed Peter Taylor, Townhouse Company, to be the new STF Chair. In 2001 Peter was awarded the highest accolade in the Scottish Tourism industry - The Silver Thistle Award - and in 2004, he was awarded an OBE for his services to Tourism.

Peter has appointed two Vice Chairs: Ian Gardner, National Trust for Scotland and Andy Machen-Young, Highlands and Islands Tourism. For background information on all STF Directors, please visit www.stforum.co.uk/staffandmembers.asp

New Director for the Tourism Innovation Group

The Tourism Innovation Group is delighted to announce the appointment of Sue Crossman as its new Director.

Sue has experience of many aspects of Scottish tourism having worked for Spectra Travel, Gleneagles Hotels plc and RGA, a management consultancy specialising in tourism, leisure, hospitality and cultural sectors.She is particularly interested in hotels and cultural/heritage tourism, and is passionate about increasing quality and encouraging innovation in Scottish tourism in order to grow the market and improve competitiveness.

Sue will be taking up office at 29 Drumsheugh Gardens Edinburgh along with the Scottish Tourism Forum and Pride & Passion teams and can be contacted at sue.crossman@tourisminnovation.com.

Pride and Passion Overview

Pride & Passion is an industry led campaign that sets out to inspire change in our attitudes to visitors. The Pride & Passion team has spent the last five months consulting widely, gathering together what we know about visitors' expectations and experiences and working out what needs to be done to make sure our visitors have a fantastic time when they come to Scotland. For further information on Pride & Passion, please visit: http://www.scotexchange.net/tourism_organisations/scottishlevel/tradeassociations/list/tourism_organisations_prideandpassion.htm

Event Support Programme - Summer Listings

EventScotland is supporting a number of local and national events across Scotland this summer as part of its event support programmes to assist new and existing events. EventScotland supported events coming up over the next few weeks include:

Major events programme

• Shetland Island Games, 9 -15 July
  
• Special Olympics, Glasgow, 11-15 July
  
• Royal and Ancient The Golf Open Championship, 14-17 July
  
• The Rat Race Urban Adventure, Edinburgh, 16-17 July
• Senior British Open Golf, Aberdeenshire, 18-24 July
  
• The Homeless World Cup, Edinburgh, 19-24 July

Regional events programme

• East Newk Festival, Fife, 30 June-3 July
  
• Game Conservancy Limited Scottish Fair, Perthshire, 1-3 July
• Hebridean Celtic Festival, Stornoway, 13-16 July
• ButeLive, Isle of Bute, 15-18 July
  
• Wickerman Festival 2005, Dumfries and Galloway, 22-23 July
  
• Arbroath Seafront Spectacular, 23 July

For the full events listing for the event support programmes, please visit www.eventscotland.org.

EventScotland News

Issue 4 of EventScotland's newsletter is now available. If you would like a copy, please contact Lynn Stent, EventScotland on 0131 472 2264 or email lynn.stent@eventscotland.org.

New Route to Market for Self-Catering Providers

Self-catering providers can now sign up for visitscotland.com's new self-catering booking system. The new system allows providers to set seasonal pricing and make any changes to their own visitscotland.com entry as required. Visitors can check availability and book through visitscotland.com as well as contacting the providers direct, offering an effective new channel to book self-catering accommodation throughout Scotland.

As well as providing a powerful way of extending accommodation providers' marketing reach to attract more customers, visitscotland.com, as a third party agent, will be vigorous in ensuring balance payments are collected.

If you would like further information on the new self-catering booking system please phone 0845 602 3779 or visit: http://www.scotexchange.net/tourism_organisations/scottishlevel/visitscotland.com/visitscotland.com_marketing_opps/visitscotland.com_marketing_opps_selfcatering

Technical Problem

visitscotland.com recently experienced an unexpected technical error which was connected to the launch of the self catering booking system. While the problem affected some accommodation providers in the holiday home and caravan site sector, visitscotland.com would like to reassure those marketing their properties on visitscotland.com that every effort was made to identify the problem quickly and that the technical error has now been resolved.