Fifteen tourism brides staged Scotland's first mass bouquet throw today (Thursday 14th February) at the Scott Monument, Princes Street in Edinburgh, to unveil the launch of the Romantic Scotland campaign.
The brides tossed their bouquets to the waiting Bridget Jones singletons and then found single men to give their garters to. The brides were attired in outfits from Oxfam's Aberdeen shop, the only dedicated Oxfam bridal outlet in Scotland. Oxfam Bridal stocks sample dresses from designers and never worn bridal gowns.
The Romantic Scotland campaign, a partnership between VisitScotland and the fourteen Scottish Area Tourist Boards, aims in the next twelve months:
- To generate additional visitor trips to Scotland for reasons of romance worth 1.75 million pounds.
- To capitalize on the global awareness of Scotland as a destination for a wedding or a romantic break following Madonna and Guy Ritchie's wedding in the Highlands
- To generate additional visitor trips for stag and hen nights/breaks
- To reduce seasonality in the Scottish tourism market and to encourage optimum retention and dispersal of visitors throughout Scotland
Says Fiona Jack, Romantic Scotland Project Manager "What better way to showcase Scotland's romantic spirit than a bevy of beautiful tourism brides. We hope that the Romantic Scotland campaign will encourage more people to say I Do to Scotland and to find out exactly what a big heart Scotland and its people has. The site will give people from across the world access to information on places to be married, have a romantic break, or to propose, as well as practical information on wedding requirements in Scotland."
The Romantic Scotland team hope that starry-eyed lovers will boost the numbers of passionate trips to Scotland and that their amorous efforts will see an increase in the numbers of couples travelling to tie the knot in Scotland. In more than a quarter of marriages registered in Scotland in 1999, neither the bride nor groom was resident in the country.
"Scotland has a veritable profusion of places for the romantically inclined," says Casia Zajac Communications Manager, Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board, "Whether you want to be amorous in Aberfeldy or passionate in Paisley, tender in the Trossachs, fervent in Falkirk, sentimental in Selkirk, loving in Lerwick or romantic in Rothesay, there's a passion a plenty!"
The Romantic Scotland campaign is a first for Scottish Tourism as it sees a pan-Scotland campaign being delivered by the Area Tourist Board Network, rather than the national body. Fiona Jack added, "This campaign illustrates how the tourist board network can deliver partnership working. Seventy percent of the Romantic Scotland campaign funding has come from VisitScotland, topped up by tourism businesses across the country. Together we think we can show Romantic Scotland at its best and deliver real business for Scottish tourism."
The fifteen brides tossed their bouquets over their shoulders to the waiting crowd of bachelorettes and then sought out single men to give their garters to in Princes Street.
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