Councillors commend Inverness BID and Visit Inverness Loch Ness Tourism BID
The roles of two Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) during the pandemic have been commended by Members of The Highland Council’s City of Inverness Area Committee during presentations of their annual reports to Councillors today (26 August 2021).
Inverness Councillors were updated on Inverness BID and the Visit Inverness Loch Ness Tourism BID Annual Reports.
Members heard in detail the many ways in which the small team at Inverness BID supported their 850+ members and the Council and continued to liaise with partners and other UK agencies both during lockdown and into recovery.
A number of marketing campaigns featured prominently in their activities and Inverness BID was recognised by Scotland’s Towns Partnership and awarded the ‘High Street Heroes’ Award.
Provost of Inverness and Area Cllr Helen Carmichael said: “Inverness BID continues to work closely with Highland Council on the coach friendly project; the city centre summer floral displays; the gull management project; and is very active in the Inverness Community Safety Partnership to name but a few of their partnership projects with the Council all supported with funding from the Inverness Common Good Fund.”
Visit Inverness Loch Ness reported that their social media reach per month had more than doubled to 1million, and there is now more than 460 members to which 22 webinars were delivered.
Some of the marketing projects in their annual report highlighted the creation of blogs on ‘Inverness activities’, ‘Top 10 things to do at Loch Ness with kids’ and ‘Discover Loch Ness’. A promotional video encouraging local and regional people to visit the Inverness Loch Ness area because its ‘#worthleavinghomefor’ reached 130k. Other radio staycation campaigns reached 382K people; a ‘welcome back’ campaign was promoted in the Inverness Courier and the ‘See You Soon’ UK-wide video campaign has reached over a million people promoting the city and area. A new partnership with LNER led to an ‘influencer’ visit in June, which produced online content reaching 114k people.
Visit Inverness Loch Ness were also a key project partner in the Inverness City Recovery Marketing project along with Inverness BID and The Highland Council, delivering a wide range of initiatives designed to attract increased footfall to both the City and Area, highlighting our world class attractions such as the Riverside and Loch Ness.
Provost Carmichael added: “These have been extremely difficult times for all during the pandemic and the work of Inverness BID and Visit Inverness Loch Ness is vital to the ongoing support, recovery and vitality of the local economy. I commend both BIDs for their ongoing work and commitment to their Members, partners and the city of Inverness and area.”