Eight thousand people are being given the chance to enjoy a free return trip to one of 23 islands in Scotland as part of a special VisitScotland competition.
Brilliant Island Moments
After the overwhelming success of Brilliant Island Moments last year, VisitScotland has once again teamed up with Caledonian MacBrayne and Serco NorthLink Ferries to encourage people to discover for the first time or reacquaint with Scotland’s islands.
The new campaign, which is open to UK residents from 25 February 2015, offers 8,000 free passenger tickets for an offshore adventure. There will be a draw each week, up until 25 March with 4,000 winners receiving one pair of foot passenger tickets for their chosen route.
In 2014, a record-breaking 63,000 people from the UK entered the Brilliant Island Moments prize draw, nearly double the amount of entrants for 2013’s campaign (35,000).
Popular destinations
Brodick on the beautiful Isle of Arran was the most popular destination with 9,470 requests. In second place was Shetland (8,989), Lewis (7,048), Mull (6,710) and Orkney (6,204) took third, fourth and fifth respectively.
The Islands Survey revealed that of the 425,000 visitors who went to the Outer Hebrides, Shetland and Orkney between 2012 and 2013, around three quarters said that they would be likely to return in the next five years for a holiday or short break. The Survey also revealed visitors contribute over £100m to the local economies.
Brilliant Island Moments is part of a £1.4 million UK & Ireland marketing campaign (January – March) to encourage more domestic visitors to Scotland. As well as being highlighted on VisitScotland’s TV advert, Brilliant Island Moments will also be promoted via a mix of press, radio, online and social media.
TripAdvisor Award winners
Scotland boasted six winning beaches in the recent TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice awards for Beaches. Isle of Harris’ Luskentyre was named eighth best rated in the UK while Calgary Bay on the Isle of Mull came 20th and Kiloran Beach on the Isle of Colonsay came 25th.
In 2014, Lewis and Harris were named among the world winners of TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Islands awards. Lewis and Harris beat tropical rivals in Thailand, Chile and Madagascar to be included in the top five islands in the world, also making it the number one island in Europe, based on the reviews and opinions of millions of travellers on TripAdvisor.
VisitScotland’s Brilliant Island Moments prize draw runs from 25 February – 25 March 2015, to enter click here
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