SCOTLAND will launch its biggest-ever spring campaign next month in an attempt to increase the number of visitors taking short breaks from April to June.
The Scottish Tourist Board has confirmed it will spend £1.7m on the Scottish Spring Breaks campaign which will replace the Spring into Summer campaign run in previous years.
An STB spokeswoman said: “This is a much more substantial investment than we have made on the spring campaign in the past. Usually we spend between £1.2m and £1.5m.”
The STB’s decision to launch a new campaign follows a two-year decline in its domestic market which started to dip in 1998.
During that year, there were a total of 9.8m trips within Scotland from the rest of the UK compared to 11.1m the previous year. The new campaign will incorporate a mix of TV, press and radio advertising, plus poster adverts on the London Underground. There will also be brochures featuring special offers from more than 200 companies in Scotland, which will be sent to agents throughout the UK from next month.
Areas the STB is particularly keen to target include Scotland, Manchester, the northeast of England, the northwest, the Midlands and London.
“London is a very valuable market for us for short breaks because of the number of low-cost flights available to Scotland and also the rail service,” said the STB spokeswoman.
The campaign, which will include tactical marketing and branding, will start at the end of February.