VisitAberdeenshire Annual Review 2021-22 | ONE

As the tourism sector continued to navigate the challenges of the pandemic throughout 2021, VisitAberdeenshire maintained its focus on driving demand to visit the region and on supporting local businesses to survive, thrive, and meet that demand.

Funding from Opportunity North East, Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council supports the work of VisitAberdeenshire.

In addition to taking great strides to raise the profile of the region among targeted audiences, and to secure new business from tour operators and conference organisers, VisitAberdeenshire’s pioneering Business Recovery Programme delivered 47 webinars, nearly 300 tailored one-to-one advice sessions and helped local businesses develop 27 new travel trade-ready products throughout the past year.

The programme remains industry led with themes including digital marketing, customer and market insights and sustainability, with 44 businesses taking up the opportunity of a free sustainability audit, specialist advice and development of action plans.

Moira Gash, Founder of Deetour Ltd, said: ”The Business Recovery Programme offered by VisitAberdeenshire was interesting and helpful for us. It provided a positive focus and an opportunity which we used to refresh our current knowledge and also to upskill across some new areas, during what was a very uncertain time for so many tourism businesses.”

Anne Martin, Sales Manager, Sandman Signature Aberdeen Hotel and Spa, said: “It is a pleasure to work with VisitAberdeenshire and the incredible team behind the scenes.

“We share a passion for Aberdeen and the wider country and greatly appreciate the work the team does to promote our wonderful part of the world. Our work together has allowed us to see a significant effect on visitor numbers and guests coming through the doors of our property.

“We share a combined mission to increase awareness and visitors to the area and reinforce the region’s location as a first-rate tourism destination.”

Chris Foy, Chief Executive, VisitAberdeenshire said: ”We adopted “Above and Beyond” as our marketing creative in 2021 and it not only reflects the visitor experience in the region but in turn has come to reflect the way in which we, as an organisation, have approached our work to support regional tourism throughout continued uncertain times.

“We recognise that none of the work we do would be possible without the support of our funders at Opportunity North East, Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council.”

Pre-pandemic, direct tourism expenditure in the north-east contributed more than £730 million to the local economy every year, supporting almost 18,500 jobs across nearly 1400 diverse businesses.