FINANCIAL BACKING FOR the group that has been meeting head-on the challenges faced by Moray and Speyside Tourism has been agreed for a further three years.
Councillors were asked this week to continue their support for Moray Speyside Tourism with a contribution of £15,000 a year with additional support coming from Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
Since being established under the guidance of the Moray Chamber of Commerce and the Moray Economic Partnership, Moray Speyside Tourism has worked with communities and businesses, helping them work together in encouraging new visitors to the region each year.
Councillors were recently provided with an update from recently appointed Moray Speyside operations manager Laurie Piper, who has lost little time in laying out his vision for the vital future of tourism in Moray.
On Tuesday, members of the economic development and infrastructure services committee agreed to the continued funding contribution – a proposal that gained cross-party support with the SNP’s Councillor Graham Leadbitter saying: “Promotion of tourism in Moray has been challenging in recent years for a variety of reasons.
“It has always been a bit of trick getting everyone to pull in the same direction but in the last three years I believe Moray Speyside Tourism has managed to do that.
“We are seeing much more effective partnership working and a really strong programme of services provided to our local tourism businesses from Moray Speyside, including internationally recognised World Host Training, support for social media development, support for businesses to do online booking and a huge amount of marketing support right across Moray.
“Our region has an enormous amount to offer visitors from our thriving food and drink sector to our historic and built environment, to our rapidly growing outdoor activities sector.
“As councillors we must continue to back the efforts of Moray Speyside Tourism, which with this financial support should be self-sustaining in three years.”
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