AVIEMORE TO BECOME WORLD CLASS VISITOR ATTRACTION
Plans to spend £26.5 million were unveiled for
the Aviemore Centre, with a pledge to transform the resort into a world-class
visitor attraction within three years.
Work is due to start next summer on the £26.5 million
vision for Aviemore Highland Resort (AHR), which will include a swimming
pool, conference centre, cinema, upgraded hotel facilities, a village
green area and self-catering lodges. It will also see the building of
a hospitality academy to train staff for the service industry.
A consortium led by Macdonald Hotels is investing £18
million, with £6.5 million coming from Highlands and Islands Enterprise
(HIE) and Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise (MBSE). A further
£2 million is being spent by MBSE upgrading the road network.
In addition, Macdonald Hotels will carry out a £5
million revamp of its nearby resort at Dalfaber, to include a luxury hotel
and 18-hole championship golf course. MBSE will contribute £1 million
towards the cost.
Highland Council granted the permission earlier this year
after the developers entered into a legally-binding agreement to provide
the much-needed tourism and leisure facilities, which locals feared would
never be built.
For more information regarding Aviemore see http://www.aviemore.org/
HOTELS WIN £370,000 TO UPGRADE
Local enterprise awards worth £370,000 have been
secured by the Isles Hotel Group in the Western Isles, owned by the local
Peteranna family. The funds will go towards the cost of upgrading its
three hotels.
The local enterprise money, given to the Borrodale Hotel
in South Uist and the Creagorry Hotel and Dark Island Hotel on Benbecula,
means another seven jobs in addition to the 50 they currently employ.
The £370,000 is from HIE Standards, a European-funded
initiative which provides financial assistance to accommodation providers
for investment in the upgrade of their premises, to attract and meet the
needs of today’s discerning travellers.
The Dark Island has a two-star grading from VisitScotland
but the latest improvements are expected to ensure three stars. Its revamp
is due to cost about £115,000. WIE is helping fund the project with
a building and development grant worth £43,900.
The most substantial investment is being made at the Creagorry
Hotel, whose upgrade to three star status is set to cost almost £800,000.
For more information on the Isles Hotel Group click
here
MAJOR FACELIFT FOR
OBAN PIER
Work has begun on the redevelopment of Oban's North
Pier buildings.
The new development, which will be completed by the spring,
will see the opening of two new glass-fronted restaurants, public toilets
and a harbourmaster's office.
The development will also create 50 new jobs.
Oban, Lorn and the Isles Council chairman David Webster
said the development would be a major asset for Oban.
He said: "I am pleased that a satisfactory compromise
has been reached over the use of the pier by local pleasure craft operators
and visiting cruise vessels. However, it is an undoubted fact that, with
the planned second railway pier link span, we will be fast running out
of sufficient berthage in Oban."
To view Oban's webcam see http://www.oban.org.uk/webcam/
SCOTTISH MUSEUMS COUNCILS ASKS FOR FUNDS
The Scottish Museums Council has asked the executive for the funds
in a series of proposals that it believes will guarantee the best possible
use of the more than 12 million objects held in the nation's museums and
galleries.
The call for more finance follows weeks of pressure from
the theatre community for the executive to provide funds to establish
a national theatre for Scotland. Last week, Jack McConnell, the first
minister, admitted the theatre project was "on hold".
In particular Glasgow, which has the most popular museum
in Scotland in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, receives no regular
state funding, although the audit found that 60% of Glasgow's museum exhibits
were of national or international importance.
The SMC has now delivered an action plan for museums and
galleries in Scotland, written after a lengthy consultation period that
ended earlier this month.
The key proposals include "core funding for core
museum functions"; for the executive to review local authority grant
expenditure and ring-fence money for museums; and the creation of eight
regional posts throughout the country to co-ordinate museums, tourism
bodies, education bodies, and business.
For more information see http://www.scottishmuseums.org.uk/
MILLS OBSERVATORY, DUNDEE, JOINS PRESTIGIOUS LIST OF BUILDINGS
Britain's only full-time observatory has been given Category B status
by Historic Scotland.
Despite only being built in 1935, Mills Observatory in
Dundee has been included in the prestigious list of buildings because
of its Art Deco style and technological interest.
The observatory was designed by James MacLellan Brown,
the city's architect of the time, in consultation with Professor Ralph
Allen Sampson (1869-1939) the Astronomer Royal for Scotland.
Among the interesting architectural features of the building
is a chamfered, load-bearing and free-standing central pier which runs
through the core of the observatory from the telescope mount down to the
bedrock.
The rotating dome is another noted feature of the building.
The only other example in the world is an identical dome at the David
Dunlap Observatory in Toronto.
For more information on the Mill Obsveratory, see http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/mills/main.htm
HOTEL GROUP GIVES £50,000 IN INVERNESS AID
British Trust Hotels, which owns the Columba Hotel
in Inverness, have given £50,000 towards Community projects and
good causes in Inverness. They are only hotel group in the UK to operate
as a trust and disperses about £700,000 a year to organisations
within the vicinity of its hotels.
Top of the award list was Dalneigh Community Hall, which
received £20,000 to further a programme of religious teaching in
the local parish by opening new training rooms. The special needs unit
at Inverness Royal Academy was awarded £16,550 to develop a new
sensory room.
The other local causes to receive cach were: £3,000
for L'Arche, an organisation caring for the mentally disabled; £2,000
for the Inverness Multiple Sclerosis Centre; £1,250 for various
old people's organisations; and £500 for war veteran support organisation,
the Burma Star Association.
For more information on British Trust Hotels see http://www.british-trust-hotels.com/
DAMAGE TO POPULAR TOURIST WALK TO BE REPAIRED AFTER LANDSLIDE DAMAGE
Damage to a busy stretch of a popular tourist walk
will cost more than £250,000 to repair.
The Dufftown-Craigellachie section of the Speyside Way
was damaged by a number of landslides following heavy rain, resulting
in the busy footpath being closed for safety reasons.
It is the second time in under three years that the four-mile
path has been closed.
An estimated 18,000 walkers a year use the section of
the footpath, which follows the old railway line between Craigellachie
and Dufftown.
Ian Bruce, environmental protection manager at Moray Council,
believes that the cost of repairs could be £250,000. He said: "Engineers
are still assessing the damage and we are looking at where we can get
funding for the repair work.
The repair costs will form part of the council's flood
damage claim which will go to the Scottish Executive, but it is hoped
that funds can be obtained from other sources.
For more information on the Speyside Way see http://www.moray.gov.uk/area/speyway/webpages/swhome.htm
THE TOWNHOUSE COMPANY AWARDED SVQ STATUS
The Town House Company, Edinburgh, has been awarded
a rare status by the Scottish Qualification Authority to deliver training
and awards on their behalf.
The move comes after ten months of rigorous training in
which the company has successfully proven that it matches the high quality
training and development skills required to become one of only a handful
of approved centres in Scotland.
This means that all 160 staff at The Town House Company
will be offered the opportunity to work towards a work-based qualification
while also being trained in house by assessors who are currently achieving
their own training qualifications.
In order to successfully award the qualifications, a team
of eight assessors amongst the staff have been identified which cover
most departments within the company. They are working in association with
Perth College to achieve their D32/33 assessor status.
Funding for this project has been sought and gained from
Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothians through a series of contract
negotiations. SEE&L will provide funding for this provided that candidates
progress through their SVQ’s at an agreed rate. Together with this
funding, the Town House Company is currently considering ways to financially
reward their staff on completion of the certificates.
The qualifications offered are:
SVQ Level 2 and Modern Apprenticeships (Level 2&3
combined) in Reception, Front Office, Housekeeping, Food & Drink Service
and Cooking & food preparation. There are currently 6 individuals
going through vocational training to be the best that they can be in their
chosen areas of work.
For more information on The Town House Company see
http://www.townhousecompany.com/
STONEHAVEN ALL SET FOR FAMOUS FIREBALLS CEREMONY
Stonehaven's world-famous fireballs ceremony is among
New Year celebrations. Organised by a specially founded committee, the
event sees dozens of the blazing torches hurled to ward evil spirits away
from the town.
Stonehaven's fireballs procession is one of Scotland's
most unique and historic celebrations of the New Year.
The fireballs are seen as a way of helping speed on the
exit of the Old Year and herald the beginning of the New Year as the procession
makes its way through the town led by a small pipe band.
Each fireball is a round cage of wire netting about two
feet in circumference which is packed with all sorts of flammable material
like oily rags, twigs and cones from trees and small pieces of coal all
of which is soaked in paraffin to ensure a fiery display.
For further details on this event see http://www.agtb.org/visit/events/eventintro.htm
VISIT SCOTLAND EXPO 2003
SECC, Glasgow
9th, 10th April 2003
VisitScotland expo is Scotland's main
annual travel trade show, organised by VisitScotland. It is the only business-to-business
tourism event that is entirely 'Scottish' and offers the perfect opportunity
for all Scotland-based exhibitors to showcase their products and services
to potential buyers from around the globe.
VisitScotland expo invites all Scottish tourism businesses
to exhibit, from accommodation and conference and incentive providers
to golf and leisure clubs and transport operators. In fact, all tourism-related
companies with a Scotland-based product would find this show beneficial.
Buyers from around the globe are invited to expo by VisitScotland's
Marketing department and the Scottish Convention Bureau. The show is an
invitation-only event which allows VisitScotland to ensure the quality
of the buyers.
For more information and a stand booking form, please
contact: VisitScotland Events Department
Tel: 0131 472 2376
Fax: 0131 332 9212
Email events@visitscotland.com
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