WIT Event: Moving Forward – Hospitality in the Highlands

Join us for a Women in Tourism virtual event on Wednesday 5th May at 4.30pm. On the back of Scottish and British lockdown measures easing sufficiently to allow our tourism and hospitality venues to reopen at the end of April we have gathered some excellent speakers who are willing to share their experiences.

Challenges we all thought would be past in the summer of 2020 are still with this sector as we come out of another lengthy period of closure and attempt to plan for a profitable and engaging season with ever shifting guidance and best practice standards. Many venues which opened in 2020 managed with; an impressive reduction in expenses by postponing capital expenditure, adjusted to COVID measures in relatively temporary ways under the expectation they would be short lived, and often altered the visitor experience by removing normal elements that were not able to be offered safely.

A whole year later, will our potential guests and visitors still be enthusiastic about this reduced offer? Have the measures introduced been so successful that they are being made permanent? Is a new level of innovation and product development required now that we are retargeting our local areas again, given the lack of international travel?

Speakers

Caroline Robertson from VisitScotland will share the official reopening strategy of Visit Scotland in the Highlands and highlight the tools developed by VisitScotland that may assist our businesses in reopening.

Lisa Robshaw, Head of Marketing and Sales at The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) will share information on the reopening of both Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park. In particular Lisa can share experience of being open in 2021, as the zoo was permitted to welcome guests from March, and the different challenges faced by a city central location and a regional site in the Cairngorms.

Moira Unwin¸ of The Sonas Collection, a group of three stylish boutique hotels on the Isle of Skye, will share the preparation and developments made by their sites to welcome visitor back in a COVID safe manner, while maintaining the outstanding quality of visitor experience they are known for, particularly looking at the difference between opening in 2020 versus the plan for this season.

WIT Board Member, Julie Grieve, will also share some more information about how WIT can assist our members individually or as a business through our Mentoring Programme. There will be time after the speakers for some questions and general discussion.