in Edinburgh. It is an interactive exhibition, not a working distillery, and showcases the Scotch whisky industry to about 300,000 visitors a year. “In the past ten years we’ve seen
the distilleries moving on from the standard tour or visit,” says Julie. “Often what we do, and the changes we make, in Edinburgh are mirrored further north a couple of years later. About 12 years ago, we started increasing the different types of tour products that we did, and that was really to do with mak- ing them more bespoke, making them higher end. And they are the products that the incentive market is really interested in; it’s something you’ll not see on a website.” Te fact that innovations at the
SWE will often be introduced at distillery visitor centres a couple of years later is no accident as the SWE has the distillers as its stakeholders. “We meet up with them on a bian- nual basis in terms of visitor centres and have a collaborative approach to everything.” Now cutting peat on a Islay moor or a private tasting of rare casks
with the master distiller can elevate a tour into a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As Julie adds: “Incentive travel organisers want something very special for their visitors on high-end trips.”
ANOTHER IDEA for organisers is to hold events in a distillery. Across Scotland, there are plenty of examples of meetings, recep- tions, dinners and team-building days amid the gleaming copper stills or alongside the angels as they take their share from the maturing whisky in their oak barrels. In May, there will be one confer-
“I BELIEVE THAT WHISKY, MORE THAN A LOT OF OTHER TOURISM PRODUCTS, HAS SO MANY DIFFERENT TOUCH POINTS AND CONNECTIONS THAT YOU CAN PICK UP ON AND MAKE BESPOKE ACCORDING TO YOUR AUDIENCE.”
Julie Trevisan Hunter, Scotch Whisky Experience’s marketing director
ence where the talk is all whisky. Te Worldwide Distilled Spirits Conference will see distilling professionals from across the sector gather at the Edinburgh Interna- tional Conference Centre, from 25 May to 28 May. Te agenda will range from spirit production to the latest developments in product pro- tection and authentication. Unsur- prisingly, there will be whisky themed-tours available for delegates … technical visits to distilleries and a bottling plant. n
EVENTSBASE | SPRING 2020 | 41
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