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Stonehaven it's Special, a voluntary organisation was formed out of the Friends of the Open Air Pool who had recognised the importance of marketing Stonehaven as a destination in addition to the Pool as a tourist attraction.
At about the same time, the various events in Stonehaven had been under threat due to cuts in funding and Stonehaven it's Special was formed to co-ordinate events, raise money for these events through sponsorship, marketing and promotion through a house style of brochure, all of which advertise different events as well as providing information on the event in question, and to generally market and promote Stonehaven.
Two groups exist - Events Co-ordination and Tourist Group
The main executive is chaired by Trudi Clayton a past Chair of the Events Group and very active in organising the Town's Folk Festival.
The Events Group is made up of the voluntary organising clubs / groups of the towns community events, who have have come together to support each other including the joint marketing of events and is now chaired by Martin Kasprovicz who is also on the Stonehaven Folk Festival committee. Information on all the events supported by the group can be found on www.stonehavenitsspecial.co.uk
A Marketing co-ordinator was appointed by the group to raise funds and since 2005 over £20,000 per annum has been raised to help support the local events.
The Tourism Group folded after a year as the then Chairman who was the driving force behind it stepped down.
In September 2004 a meeting was held with a view to reviving the Group.
George McGillivray of Webecom Marketing who run the Stonehaven Guide website was appointed Chairman and a committee has been formed with representatives from varying sectors such as, hotels, bed and breakfast, retail, business association, community council and Open Air Pool.
Since then the Tourism Group have carried out Market Research in the Town and had Promotional Leaflet Campaigns in 2005 and 2006 .
They have helped to promote Stonehaven along with other towns in the Towns Together Forum at Visit Scotland Exhibitions in Aberdeen and Glasgow and have prepared a Draft Strategy for promoting Stonehaven which was presented to businesses at a Joint meeting with Stonehaven Business Association in March 2006
In 2007 Stonehaven its Special with the aid of funding from the Susset project appointed a professional marketing consultant in taking forward marketing and promotional activity for the town on a planned and targeted basis
A new leaflet was produced to target visitors in surrounding areas to visit Stonehaven and a new Map/information leaflet was made available to provide visitors with more information while they were in the area.
Anyone with any comments is welcome to contact us.
Useful Links to information related to Stonehaven it's Special
Tourism Survey 2005
http://www.sg.webecombiz.co.uk/sis_mr_report05.doc
Tourism Strategy
Click Here
Tourism Group Report
http://www.britnett-carver.co.uk/stonehaven/sistgreport.html
Download Stonehaven Leaflet
http://www.sg.webecombiz.co.uk/StonyLeaflet01_0506.pdf
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