West Coast Waters campaign buoyed by VisitScotland cash

A tourism campaign billed as the first to span the west coast of Scotland has received funding support from VisitScotland.

VisitScotland regional quality tourism manager Anne Massey (centre of the mooring) with West Coast Waters co-ordinator and campaign project manager Carron Tobin (to her left) and Stuart Wilson of CalMac (to her right). Picture: VisitScotland/Ian Watson.

West Coast Waters, which unites an “unprecedented” 22 industry groups from across the area, has received a £40,000 VisitScotland Growth Fund award.

The fund, delivered by the national tourism organisation, supports national, regional and sectoral tourism groups across Scotland to deliver partnership marketing campaigns.

The campaign looks to attract visitors to the west coast and surrounding islands in 2020 to either get on or in the water - with activities such as boat trips, island-hopping, snorkeling, wild swimming and surfing.

Carron Tobin, West Coast Waters co-ordinator and campaign project manager, said: “West Coast Waters is hugely exciting with collaboration at a scale never experienced before. The research undertaken in 2018 revealed not just the individual opportunities in each destination but the extent of the opportunity by working together.

“We are all keenly looking forward to welcoming visitors to our coast and islands and helping them slow down, immerse their senses and explore the roads less traveled across the West Coast.”

David Adams McGilp, VisitScotland regional director, said: “West Coast Waters is a multi-destination collaborative effort to realise the extraordinary potential of the maritime environment up and down the region. This exciting new campaign will showcase the vast marine tourism offering of Scotland’s west coast and bring visitors to the area to discover this offering for themselves."

He also welcomed VisitScotland supporting "this innovative campaign that will help bring success, well-being and prosperity to the west of Scotland".