Ayrshire’s business chiefs talk tourism plans for year of coasts and waters

More than 60 businesses across Ayrshire and Arran joined Visit Scotland at The Gailes on Thursday, October 10 to plan ahead of the year-long programme of events and activities which will shine a spotlight on Ayrshire’s coastal landscape.

Business leaders also discussed The Coig – a new tourism route initiative for Ayrshire, Firth of Clyde and the Clyde Islands created to promote business growth and raising awareness of these areas to a global audience.

Presentations were given by VisitScotland’s Themed Year Manager Chelsea Charles and The Coig’s Tom Campbell. As part of his presentation, Tom announced that Daniel Steel, Chief Executive of SailScotland, had been appointed as Operations Director of The Coig.

Gordon Smith, VisitScotland Regional Director, said: “I was delighted to see the passion and generation of ideas from businesses across Ayrshire & Arran who clearly see the opportunities presented by our next themed year and The Coig initiative.

“At VisitScotland we want to champion collaboration and spearhead innovation that will ensure that every part of Scotland enjoys the benefits brought by tourism.”

Daniel Steel, Operations Director of The Coig, said: “It is a hugely exciting project, promoting an area with incredible assets which make it appealing to an international audience. I firmly believe that this can be a real game changer for our visitor economy over the next few years.”

Following the presentations, the industry partners were given time to discuss how they could make the most of the themed year and ideas generated were recorded.