Inverness Start of the Season Tourism Newsletter 2012

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Article page

Explore Scotland 1

Explore Scotland What has Changed?

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Cawdor Castle 3

Highland Aviation Museum

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Crazy Horse Coffee Shop & Restaurant

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5

Kushi Adventures 5

Maya Chocolates 6

FaceBook to be ….. 6

Good luck to us all in the 2009 Tourist Season. In the year of

The Homecoming

Inside this issue:

Explore Scotland – what has changed? Twelve months have passed since we last communicated through our Start of Season Newsletters and much has changed.

We now have 11 Explore area Guides, covering the following areas:-

Beauly, Dingwall, Loch Ness and the Black Isle

Aberdeen Ayrshire & Arran Glasgow Highland Perthshire

Inverness Inverurie Loch Lomond & Trossachs Oban and Mull

Outer Hebrides St Andrews & East Fife Stirling & Falkirk

Watch this space!!

Dumfries &

Galloway to follow

April 2012

Explore Scotland Ltd 01796 473335 The newsletter • Gives you the latest Inverness

tourist business news

• Written by the businesses themselves

Inverness Newsletter 2012

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Explore web sites.

We have just completed the complete overhaul of the Ex-plore web sites, using the lat-est technology available to maximise the impact and ease of use for visitors.

New features on

ExploreScotland.net:-

Click on the interactive map to see the summary informa-tion on each area.

Transport section – includes the latest ‘Traffic Updates’ from Traffic Scotland.

Also on the Transport section –the latest Travel information Tweets from ‘Traffic Scotland’ ‘Travel Line’ and ‘Transport Scotland’ so you have one page you can check for all the traffic news.

New features on Explore area

web sites:-

“Your Trip” planner – we be-lieve is quite unique, it allows visitors to choose things they are interested in and drop them into their basket. They can then e-mail this or print off and bring it with them when they visit.

We know from accommoda-tion providers, that if they can give their guests a link to the information on the web-site – guests will often ex-tend their stay when they re-alise how much there is avail-able to see and do in the area. Our new web sites have been designed to help give visitors information in a

user friendly way to encour-age them to stay longer – so why not send a link to your www.Explore-Inverness.com

web site? With e.mail book-ings

One accommodation provider told us her average stay was over 4 nights, when the area average was just under 2 nights. She attributed this to providing them our Explore Guides with the confirmation of booking. She also said “Quite often people do not realise how much there is to do and see here, and often wished they had allowed more time in their schedule.”

What’s On section – you can add events to this section there is no charge.

Daily News Sheet – this is designed for accommodation providers to print off each morning – they contain the weather forecast, news head-lines, What’s On events for

Explore Scotland — Website has changed!

Page 2 Explore Inverness Tourism Newsletter 2012

This is the Website to be ‘Seen On’

If you are interested in your business being

included, please contact

[email protected]

Or phone 01796 473335

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Cawdor Castle Cawdor Castle, for over 600 years the traditional home of the Thanes of Cawdor, is today the home of the D o w a g e r C o u n t e s s Cawdor. The most roman-tic Castle in the Highlands, it has a magical name linked with Mac-beth by Shakespeare. The me-dieval tower and drawbridge are intact and generations of art lov-ers are responsible for the eclec-

tic collections of paintings, tap-

estries, furniture and books in the castle. Beautiful gardens, nature trails, 9-hole golf course, snack bar and picnic area, gift shop, wool shop and new High-land shop make a day at Cawdor fun for the whole family, topped off by some delicious Scottish Fayre and home baking the Courtyard Café. Major events include Gardens Weekends on 2nd/3rd June and 18th/19th August; an RHS Gar-

dens talk on 19th May; Shake-speare’s Macbeth on 31st May; HMS Pinafore on on 26th July and the BBC Antiques Road Show on 21st June. The date of Living Food, our organic food fair is still to be confirmed. The Castle and gardens are open from 1st May to 30th September, daily from 10am to 5.30pm, with last admission at 5pm.

“Cawdor has a magical name

linked with Macbeth by

Shakespeare”

Cawdor Castle

Page 3 March/April 2012

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Saturdays and Sundays 10am –4.30pm (check website for season opening/ closing times) 9 Dalcross Industrial Estate

By Inverness Airport

Inverness

Highland

IV2 7XB

Tel: 01667 461100

www.highlandaviationmuseum.org.uk

Don’t be fooled by our small size or location on an industrial estate as we offer visitors the rare oppor-tunity to get close up and personal with aircraft and associated memorabilia. Described by visitors as “one of Inverness’ jew-els”, the Museum is an at-traction that appeals to all ages and is very family orien-tated. Where else can you climb into a jet fighter cock-pit or sit at one of the sensor posi-tions of Nimrod – the Might Hunter. Imagine what it must have been like to fly and operate these amazing aircraft? A quick visit of an hour will give you the chance to clamber into all of the aircraft cockpits, but take a little longer to delve into the internal ex-hibits and articles from

the early days of pioneers such as Capt Fresson, to crash sites and airfields in the Highlands. Owned by James Campbell and run by a team of enthusiastic volunteers, many of who are ex-service per-

sonnel, you will be wel-comed as one of the family to this hands-on and unique experience. If you want a special event outside normal

opening hours then we’ll do our best to accommodate you. Please contact us either by telephone or through the website to arrange this.


The Crazy Horse Coffee Shop & Restaurant The Crazy Horse Coffee Shop & Restaurant is centrally located on Invergordon High Street … on the scenic Cromarty Firth North-shore, just 25 spectacular miles north of Inverness.

The B817 shore road to Invergor-don forms part of the historic Pic-tish Trail route and is a welcome detour from the A9 ... off the beaten track!

Whilst in town, explore the col-ourful street murals painted on the facades of buildings which depict the history of the region.

Luxury cruise liners visit the port of Invergordon from April to Octo-ber – for full details of dates visit www.invergordon.info

The Crazy Horse Coffes Shop (formally J.E MacDonalds, Gents Outfitters) is part of a grand building erected in the 19th cen-tury and was purchased 8 years

ago and sympathetically re-stored, retaining much of it’s original features and character.

The Crazy Horse Coffee Shop & Restaurant offers traditional Highland Hospitality and service with a smile!

The Bistro menu includes old fa-vourites such as home made Steak Pie, Haggis with Neeps & Tatties … as well as lighter snacks and Chefs daily specials!

All fayre is prepared in our own kitchen … savour wholesome soups, oven fresh cakes & pas-tries plus quality ground coffee and speciality teas.

The Crazy Horse Coffee Shop & Restaurant offers a warm & friendly atmosphere and is a regular meeting place for colour-

“climb into a jet fighter cockpit ”

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ful local “characters”!

Visitors to the North Highlands of Scotland are welcomed and our friendly staff offer inside knowl-edge of local attractions, street murals and cruise liner visits. We accept payment in Pounds, Euros and Dollars and are founder members of the Invergordon Tourism Alli-ance.

We look forward to welcom-ing you!


74 High Street,

Invergordon IV18 0DL

w w w . s p a n g l e s f i s h . c o m /crazyhorsecoffeeshop

Tel. 01349 852030

Did you know , that within 20 miles

of Inverness, you could be

• canoeing through a gorge, on flat water

• climbing on real rock,

• abseiling with spectacular views,

• weaselling[wiggling] through rocks on mini adventure,

• kayaking with seals,

• tempting the loch Ness Mon-ster with your toes from a canoe,

• jumping into pools on a gorge walk,

• camping out on top of a hill or on a riverside,

• climbing a Scottish Hill to get fantastic views over the Great

Glen

• learning navigation skills

Kushi Adventures is your one stop shop for real adventures in the wild.

We have all the kit and the experi-ence to make sure you have a great time. Fun and nature are what we love.

Whether you want a full or half day, or perhaps a multiday trip Like the Great Glen Canoe Trail or the River Spey, we do it all.

We can cater for everyone families, unaccompanied youngsters, and adult groups. we don't like age to be a boundary. how about a birthday or a stag or hen group.

we also have a minibus so we can transport clients around.

as well as supplying activities we hire out canoes and kayaks.

Kushi Adventures based in Inver-ness but supplying activities all over Scotland whats your adventure going to be? contact rusell [email protected] or 07833 462707

The Crazy Horse Coffee Shop & Restaurant cont.

Kushi Adventures


“The Crazy Horse Coffee Shop &

Restaurant offers traditional Highland

Hospitality and service with a

smile!”

“What’s your adventure

Going to be?”.

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Maya Belgian Chocolates

If you don’t love chocolate, then read no further. Chocolate If you are passionate about it, then Inverness is your ‘must go’-destination. Near to the city centre in between the railway station and the bus sta-tion there is Strothers Lane. That is where I discovered the most amazing chocolates I have ever tasted. The place is

called “Maya Belgian Choco-lates” and the owners, both from Belgium (hence the chocolate), run this great shop. Everything is made on the premises and you can see the Master Chocolatier make all these precious choco-lates from within the shop. There is always a huge selection of over 25 different chocolates on display to choose from as well as truffles (you should try that ama-retto one!), chocolate bars and

even chocolate smiley faces! There is a choice for eve-ryone. The shop offers a great selection of milk, dark and white choco-lates with spectacular fillings. I am a big fan of the Strawberry Black

Pepper and the Tea chocolates. Cracking, smooth and subtle re-lease of joy for your taste buds.

But the great clas-sics like Praliné, Va-nilla, Cara-mel and many more are just as lovely! The real aficionado will make sure to ask for the ‘Origin Choco-lates’ as these are exceptional. The beans for these chocolates are harvested from selected plantations around the world and are not blended. Pure dark heaven f rom Venez ue la ( A r a g u a n i ) , M a d a g a s c a r (Manjari), Peru (Alick) and oth-ers.

Hmmmm!

Maya Belgian Chocolates 5 Strothers Lane Inverness


“There is always a huge

selection of over 25 different

chocolates”.

We are a small, local family run souvenir and gift shop. We con-stantly strive to offer our visitors a unique shopping experience and can safely state that we of-fer the best service and the most competitively priced gifts

and souvenirs than anyone else with in the city. We are prepared to offer our customers the further assurance of giving them the twice the difference if they see the same item at a lower price any-where else.

We would be happy to help fur-nish your breakfast rooms with the latest Scottish related coast-ers, aprons, table mats etc at a 15% discount on production of your relevant business card. Just

pop in and we will do it at the till. This year we have employed flu-ent German, Italian and French speakers and I extend to all readers the opportunity to con-tact Josef at the shop if you feel you might need a translator, even to the extent of working out if your customers want their eggs boiled or scrambled. Just pick up the phone. In addition to the usual credit card facilities, we are the only retailer in Inverness accepting euro notes and coins for pur-chases, even giving change in euros!!

Highland Souvenirs

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Highland Souvenirs cont.


FaceBook to be bigger than Google! All the pundits, indeed Google itself acknowledges that FaceBook will, in the long term be more important than Google. Google tried to buy FaceBook, having failed, launched Google+, their FaceBook equivalent.

Any business not on FaceBook is loosing out!

FaceBook does not cost anything, other than a small amount of time and organisation each day. If you want to get started on FaceBook we have a sheet we can e-mail you, taking you through the basic steps to get you started.

So what is FaceBook – for those not involved?

How many of you have read the n e w s p a p e r h o r r o r s t o r i e s

(remember newspapers have a vested interested in FaceBook not working, as their sales continue to drop). I say ‘A long time ago there was a thing you bought called a newspaper. The paper was full of stories some you were interested in some you were not. Depending on which paper you bought the stories were skewed to the left or to the right. Well today we have FaceBook, you choose what you are interested in and ‘Like’ that business, football team, your local butcher etc. So when they write something on their FaceBook Wall it comes to you, no one twisting the story. You choose what you are interested in and FaceBook does the rest. Your cus-tomers will be interested in your

business too. FaceBook is an easy affordable way of keeping them up to date.

Explore FaceBook – keep up to date with your area news.

We now have FaceBook and Twitter and are actively communicating and promoting your area of Scotland. So please join us and lets work to-gether and tell as many people as possible what a great area it is.

h t t p : / / w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m /ExploreInverness

Note for 2013!

I must remember to submit an entry for the 2013 Newsletter!! This is FREE advertising, getting your message to all the local businesses, at

the start of the new Season.

This Space could have been yours!!! Have a great season.

We are located opposite Costa coffee on Inglis street and we trade from 9am till 10pm, 7 days a week. I hope we all have a busy season ahead, good luck to Inverness, Martin Highland souvenirs 15 Inglis street IV1 1HN 01463 713 475

Note for 2013!

Documents

Inverness Start of the Season Tourism Newsletter 2012