A major campaign to persuade Londoners to holiday in Scotland kicked off yesterday with an open-air exhibition in the capital celebrating all things Scottish.
Celebrities including comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli, chef Nick Nairn and actors Clare Grogan and Alistair Mackenzie are heading up the weekend of cultural events including music, food and entertainment.
Kohli, who recently began a stint as a BBC reporter for The One Show, yesterday opened the London Gathering event, which is expected to attract around 7000 visitors over the weekend. Today Kohli was in the culinary marquee with Nick Nairn and award-winning chefs Shirley Spear and Michael Smith of the Three Chimneys on Skye.
VisitScotland, the national tourist board, has unveiled a 120-metre-long poster of Scotland's best scenery which will be displayed along the Embankment outside the London Gathering exhibition at the Inner Temple Gardens, Holborn, the public area of that ancient Inn of Court. It marks the start of a major advertising campaign in the London Underground and at King's Cross Station to show commuters that Scotland is a must-see holiday destination.
Alistair Gronbach, VisitScotland's head of marketing for the UK and Ireland, said the London Gathering was a "kick-start" to VisitScotland's campaign. He said: "Up until now we've been bombarding people in the northern three-quarters of Britain with marketing messages on television and cinema. We're gradually rolling down the country.
"We've got clear market research from people who say they know Scotland has nice scenery, but they don't know what else they can do here."
The giant poster was used in another successful campaign in London two years ago and is in the Guinness Book Of Records as the longest-ever poster.
Gronbach said VisitScotland advertising would be going up in London Underground stations tomorrow and would run as part of its six-week marketing campaign. He said that the adverts would "contrast the contemporary and traditional sides of Scotland."
"We want people to look at Scotland in a different way," he said. "We'll also be running ads on satellite TV and in cinemas in London and the Midlands with adverts on the festivals and events we have, and the adventure sports in Scotland."
Sandi Thom performed her hit single I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker at the London Gathering yesterday, and she will take to the main stage again today before headliner Eddi Reader.
She said: "There's a really good crowd here. Eveyone was singing along having a good time. I've been having a look around the exhibition and it looks great. Everything that's Scottish is here, like whisky and haggis so it's like having a little bit of home.
"I know from my own experience that a lot of people like going up to Scotland for the festivals we have, like the Edinburgh Festival and things like T in the Park. People in London are always looking for a bit of an escape from the rat race and I think Scotland definitely offers that."
She went on to say: "I'm really excited about playing before Eddi Reader, because I used to do covers of her songs, so it will be nice to hear her sing them."
There will also be a ceilidh and fashion marquee as well as a whisky and literary tent, where writers AL Kennedy and Christopher Brookmyre will hold a question and answer session.
Scot Gardiner, managing director of the London Gathering, said: "This will be the first event of its kind to be brought to the capital. We hope to inject a taste of modern, contemporary Scotland into the southeast and beyond."
Scottish tourism supports 200,000 jobs in 20,000 diverse businesses, which represents around 9% of the country's employment. The industry generates revenue of over £4 billion a year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article