LAUNCHNG TODAY - SCOTLAND THE HERO!

We want Scotland to be recognised as the very best place to holiday and ride across the UK and Europe, and to showcase the breadth, depth, quality, and inclusiveness of mountain biking in Scotland.

Over the next 8 weeks, we will be spotlighting destinations across Scotland. Celebrating the awesome experiences to be had and the amazing riding opportunities across our main destinations.

We will be featuring inspiring films, interviews and stories from each destination. We will also be working with five elite Scottish athletes as ambassadors for their own areas and lots more.

Please join in with the campaign, share our amazing films. Share your best places to ride. Let's get this campaign flying and tell folks how amazing Scotland is to visit and ride!

Coronavirus (COVID-19) forced a monumental shift in the tourism industry and as we map our recovery, we must recognise that we are now operating in a new tourism landscape.

Stimulating domestic visitor demand and extending the season where possible are crucial to Scotland’s immediate tourism recovery.

As part of the Scottish Government support plan to address this, the Destination & Sector Marketing Fund was set up to help stimulate the domestic market and ensure a sustainable recovery going forward.

We applied, and were successful in our application to the Fund as we saw this as a fantastic opportunity to promote Scotland as the best MTB destination in the UK, attract more visitors to our key destinations, encourage responsible tourism, and get some funding into our trail network, to ensure sustainability and help trails association manage the added demands on the trails.

Our goal is to establish Scotland not just as a popular option but as the ‘International Destination of Choice’ for mountain bikers worldwide.

We wanted to focus on 8 key destinations across Scotland. In order to highlight these areas sufficiently and promote the breadth of experiences available, we were able to secure the professional services of Scotty Laughland to create a series of films and imagery to best capture the essence of each destination.

We created 8 ‘Ride Guides’ where we showcase specific destination highlights. Driving visitors to areas with the infrastructure, support, and visitor experiences necessary to ensure an outstanding visit. We are also working with an array of local partners to help grow and develop these destinations so they can continue to develop and grow as sustainable mountain biking destinations.

In each guide, we include details of particular sensitivities to each area, local amenities including, accommodation options, food, and drink, guiding and coaching companies, and details of the local trail association alongside responsible tourism and riding messaging.

This creates a ‘one stop shop’ for folks, and will hopefully encourage folks to stay longer in one area and makes it easy for them to make the best choices while encouraging repeat bookings.

Each ‘Ride Guide’ hosts the link to 5% for the trails Expedia link. This will also provide a seamless process from inspiration through to booking.

We feel that these guides will greatly help the promotion of Scotland as the International Destination of Choice and help manage the growth in visitor numbers.

After searching for a mechanism to help fund local trail associations, we reached out to Expedia. We were impressed by their enthusiasm around how they could help promote sustainable mountain biking tourism in Scotland. The partnership will enable us to understand market trends and developments which help us provide rationale for further investment into trails.

By booking accommodation through the affiliate link, local trail associations will receive 5% of the booking value.

How this will work technically will be when a booking is made through the link it will generate 6% of the total booking amount back to the Scottish Trail Fund. Through the Scottish Trail Fund, we will then be allocating 5% of the booking back to the local trails association and we will keep 1% to help us administrate the process.

This is just one step on the journey that we are taking to help secure a sustainable future for mountain biking in Scotland. Working with local trail groups who know and understand their community is key to the long-term vision.