Scottish Thistle Awards Undergo Major Transformation

13th October 2011

The new look Scottish Thistle Awards have been announced today.

As you may remember, a widespread consultation exercise with the tourism industry was carried out by VisitScotland. Results of that review have shown that there is a need for an awards programme led by VisitScotland celebrating excellence and satisfying the industry's appetite for knowledge, advice and support whilst instilling self confidence amongst businesses to engage with the Scottish Thistle Awards.

Further to the email update you received at the beginning of this year, VisitScotland is delighted to announce major changes to the Scottish Thistle Awards including a new regional format, recognising tourism excellence across the country and delivering a year-round programme of industry-facing activity as well as revamping the final event format.

VisitScotland will now run a programme of four localised Scottish Thistle Award celebrations which will take place between April and May 2012.

The four regional award areas will be: Highlands and Islands, North East, South/Central East, South/Central West with the winners of each progressing to represent the region at the final awards ceremony.

In the Highlands and Islands region, The Scottish Thistle Awards will be working with the already successful Highlands and Island's Tourism Awards (HITA) going forward. The HITA's finalists will automatically progress to represent the region in the Scottish Thistle Award finals.

Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said; "Since 1992 the Scottish Thistle Awards have led the way in terms of recognising the brilliant tourism organisations and businesses that this country has to offer. The new format will allow us to extend this further, reaching all regions in Scotland, which will not only allow us to recognise those who are making a real difference, but also to unlock the massive potential in others."

Charlie Marshall, Business Development Manager at the award winning Scottish Seabird Centre (Scottish Thistle Award's Marketing Initiative Award Winner, 2010) said; "We welcome the change in format. Not only will it allow the awards to engage with all regions of Scotland, it also ensures that that the prestige of the awards is enhanced. The Scottish Thistle Awards recognise excellence within the tourism industry and this move will allow more people than ever to get involved."

Entries will open on 15 November 2011, details of which can be found here: www.scottishthistleawards.co.uk

Email: info[AT]scottishthistleawards.co.uk
Telephone: 0131 472 2228
Twitter: [AT]ThistleAwards
Website: www.scottishthistleawards.co.uk