Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!
HIGHLANDERS are being urged to ‘choose local’ in a new campaign aimed at getting residents to support businesses closer to home.
Visit Inverness Loch Ness has made the plea in a bid to boost Highland businesses and safeguard jobs by getting people to enjoy local stays, food and drink, activities and attractions.
Businesses throughout the region are also joining forces in efforts to support each other by sourcing more things locally – as well as keeping visitors local for longer and leading the push for sustainable tourism.
They are all supporting the Scotland Loves Local campaign, calling on people across the country to “make their communities stronger and choose local, whether for shopping, days out or breaks”.
Visit Inverness Loch Ness chief executive Michael Golding said: “What I love here is that, outside of Inverness, everyone else is from small communities, most of them have only a few hundred people living there.
“The small and micro-business owners there are a key part of those communities. They’re completely ingrained in them – and they’ve all bought into the Scotland Loves Local message.
“We need to support local, we need to send people to each other’s businesses and keep them in the area. That’s something that we help to do – bringing people together, creating collaborations and helping make sure that we keep people in the area longer, increasing their spend and making the area more sustainable while we do that.
“Having people stay local, be local, shop local, and enjoy authentic products and authentic food experiences, is a core theme for us.”
Scotland Loves Local is spearheaded by Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP) – an organisation which seeks to champion the nation’s towns and places – with support from the Scottish Government.
By encouraging people to support businesses of all kinds in their community – whether shops, cafés, restaurants, visitor attractions or other services – it is hoped that communities can become stronger and better places in which to live, work and visit.
Visit Inverness Loch Ness membership manager Sharon Mackay added: “The Love Local lamppost banners are on display for a third year, by the river in Inverness on Bank Street. This busy route through the city gives greater visibility to our many hidden gems, attractions and activity providers, showcased on 30 beautiful banners.
“A further 42 Love Local banners are now also on lampposts leading into six villages, as well as the main traffic route into the city centre from the A9.
“The year-round campaign not only beautifully illustrates the many wonderful things to see and do in our area, the banners also encourage tourists and locals to explore and experience more, which is further supporting the local economy”.
Among the attractions keen to work with others locally is the team at The Highlanders Museum at Fort George.
Caz Young, from the museum, said: “It’s brilliant to get more people in to share our culture and history, but also to share some economic value so that we can keep doing what we love.”
Across the Highlands, islands and throughout northern Scotland, STP says it’s vital for the future of communities that residents show their support for the people around them by backing local enterprises.
Scotland’s multi-billion pound tourism industry is directly responsible for about five per cent of Scotland’s GDP and in the region of seven per cent of national employment.
More business news.