Posted:- 15th October 2009

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Firstly congratulations! Pitlochry in Bloom have done it again with a Gold Award and winners of the Best in Category for the Best Small Town in Britain in Bloom 2009.

These things are mostly down to the efforts of hardworking volunteers and are major contributions to the Town’s profile and Visitor attraction. Visit Scotland please take note!

Congratulations also to the Enchanted Forest Team who picked up the 2009 Scottish Event award for best marketing strategy and Judges Commendation for Best Cultural Event.

These things are mostly down to the efforts of hardworking volunteers and are major contributions to the Town’s profile and Visitor attraction. Visit Scotland please take note!

Partnership Way Ahead

As stated in the last newsletter the partnership is now wholly dependent on member activity and no longer has paid part-time employees. It needs to regain it’s focus if it is to perform for Pitlochry. As promised in earlier Newsletters a workshop meeting was held in the Moulin Hall to discuss the core objectives and priorities of the Partnership now it is an organisation wholly dependent on volunteers. The workshop was well attended and facilitated by Miriam Galt. The final report will be e-mailed to all members.

In Summary priorities from the workshop were seen as;

1st Priority: Marketing
There are 2 aspects to this 1) Getting people here and 2) Once they are here

• Website Development
• Form a better relationship with Visit Scotland (Visitor Centre / wider marketing etc. The Partnership needs to liaise, get in and be in there with Visit Scotland as a voice to represent Pitlochry. Visit Scotland does not adequately represent Pitlochry.
• Utilise the media wherever possible
  Work so that Pitlochry Markets itself better through a variety of media but don’t get carried away.
  (See comments below on Marketing group)

2nd Priority – Lobbying Issues
Identify what issues are bothering businesses. Tie in issues identified by Glamis consultancy report.

• Lobby emphasis is primarily on behalf of Pitlochry on business issues – the economic benefit to the town – and then on members issues. Discuss the grey areas.
• Keep the focus; lobbying should stay business and marketing focussed
• Members raise issues. Identify a non-divisive way of addressing them.
  Lobbying issues should be proactive. Stay focussed on the issues. There is a danger of lobbying on everything. Do not be divisive on overlapping issues. We cannot debate all the community issues if we are a business forum. Some issues are indirectly affected and we need to discuss those. For example proposals for the Town Centre and the Dundarach field could have a dramatic positive or negative effect on the town economy.

3rd Priority – Funding Through DMO and Elsewhere

• Ensure the focus is on the Partnership’s core business objectives
• How do we fund ourselves? – How membership works and how we are funded.

Identify funding opportunities. The mistake made previously was to look at what funding was available then try to create projects to secure that funding. It doesn’t work that way. We need to identify the projects we require and seek out funding for them. Work to our skills. Identify sources of funding that match projects that meet Partnership objectives. For funding through the DMO we need to maintain a working relationship with the other local associations in Highland Perthshire.

The next steps - The meeting agrees that to keep the focus

• Whatever we come up with must be achievable
• Other ways need to be found for communicating with members and non-members
• Partnership needs to be tangible and understandable by the general public
• Keep it town and individual focussed
• We need more to energise people than emails and newsletters
• Make it social

To take forward marketing a small group of members is being formed with the task of improving the marketing of Pitlochry both through the web-site and by other means. Their activities will be reported to members on a regular basis.

A similar approach will be taken to other priorities and members who want to get involved in any of these can contact Andrew Holmes or Sally Spaven who has now taken up the Secretary role in the partnership.

The partnership has been the first point of contact on business and tourism issues for agencies such as Visit Scotland but also Perth and Kinross Council and Scottish Enterprise. We need to work harder with all these organisations to ensure our importance to the Scottish economy is recognised.

The meeting felt that the workshop should be repeated on a 6-12 month cycle to keep the organisation refreshed. The best time for the next session is probably late spring next year before everyone gets to peak activity so watch this space.

The workshop has helped redefine the core objectives of the Partnership. To maintain our focus it is essential that we continue to obtain the views and participation of the membership. What are the gaps in the above? Should we be looking beyond these core objectives as resources permit? Pitlochry has a good number of active organisations. Does our focus allow a sensible working relationship with other organisations. If you want to get involved in activities or have any views e-mail the Chairman Andrew Holmes on a.m.holmes@btinternet.com or the Secretary Sally Spaven on sally.spaven@btinternet.com or speak to any committee member.

Highland Perthshire Destination Management Organisation Update

Over the last few months there has been a good deal of talk about a proposed Destination Management Organisation (DMO) first put forward by Scottish Enterprise earlier in the year.

Unfortunately a large part of this talk has centred on a misunderstanding relating to a figure of £57 million quoted in the original SE document and publicized in the local press, which has somewhat muddied the waters. For the record, the phrase used in SE’s document was “£57m potential private sector investment”, in other words an aggregated figure of all the potential future tourism related private sector developments on the drawing board at the time. Sadly, not the budget available to a future DMO!

With regard to the development of a DMO, progress has not surprisingly been slower than hoped, but Scottish Enterprise has recently informed the four tourism associations currently invited to participate that they have now “received approval to fund a consultant to focus on establishing the DMO for Highland Perthshire.” The remit of this consultant as defined by SE will cover the following:

• Establish contact with relevant groups in the area to gain their input
• Develop the structure of the DMO including Board, Executive, and Work streams.
• Develop the constitution, legal documentation and fund the formal set up of the group.
• Identify future funding model for DMO including project manager. This will identify potential sources of funding.
• Develop business and action plan for the DMO, including identifying quick wins.

From the point of view of the four tourism associations, we are committed to ensure that there is genuine public consultation before anything is fixed in stone, and that any future DMO is genuinely representative of the tourism industry in the Highland Perthshire area. We are working towards a series of public meetings as part of this.

The whole rate of progress is frustrating but at least details are now being developed. Dunira Strategy have been appointed to take this forward. They have previously been involved in setting up DMOs in Edinburgh and in the Highlands

Other News

Planning application for the Curling Rink. Members were asked through an on-line survey if they wanted the partnership to take a view on the Curling Rink proposals and if so their view on the proposal. 66% of members responding believed the Partnership should have a view and 65% considered the development inappropriate. These views have been forwarded to the Council Planning Department.

Town Centre Regeneration Fund bid: As reported briefly in the last newsletter a bid to the Scottish Government Town Centre Regeneration Fund has been lodged by a consortium of interests in Pitlochry. The cash is being sought by an alliance of businesses and community groups with the aim of creating new links between the centre of the town, the Festival Theatre and other local facilities.

The bid application outlined routes in a new network interconnecting with improved local facilities. A proposed all-season sculpture garden in the town centre will link to refurbished and re-opened public toilets. The route winds under the railway line via an enhanced Victorian tunnel to open on to two newly created walks on the 10 acre Bobbin Mill site.
It will then link to the recreation ground and a newly constructed skate park and onwards to the Festival Theatre over the historic pedestrian bridge.

The bidding partnership consists of Pitlochry & Moulin Community Council, the Festival Theatre, Pitlochry in Bloom and the Pitlochry Partnership. The Scottish Government have advised that we will know whether the bid has been successful by mid-November.
The winner's of the dragons den event that the Partnership put on earlier in the year, managed to take advantage of the prize last Sunday .6 people spent the day at Gleneagles hotel having spas and 1-1 shooting lessons followed by (their words) “the most fabulous lunch”.

Andrew Holmes, Chairman
15th October 2009