What's New At Island Vista?

Things may have been quiet for travel and tourism over the last 14 months, but we have been keeping ourselves busy at Island Vista. Here are just a few of the things that we have been up to.

New Website

We now have a brand-new website. Thanks to Kylie and Calum at NB Communications for all your hard and fantastic work. A big thank you also to Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It would not have been possible without the assistance of the Digital Enablement Grant. We had a static website before and while it has served its purpose, we needed to move with the times. We can now take bookings on our website for some of our Shetland Highlight Tours. We hope to add to this in time but for now, please book online at www.islandvista.co.uk. If you have a specific tour or if you are looking for shore excursions, give us a shout directly to discuss your requirements. 

YouTube Channel

Island Vista having its own YouTube channel has been a dream of mine for a while now. I wanted a way to show you Shetland on film but never had the confidence to do it until recently. Some of my reluctance to do it came from not being very sure how to edit film footage. I attended a video production course arranged by Scotland Food and Drink, Taste of Shetland and delivered by Ross from Frame in Glasgow. It was three of the most useful hours I have spent on a webinar in a long time. I learned so much and Ross could not have been more helpful. As such, I finally acquired the tools and skills I needed to put together my first promotional video. I can often be heard quoting: “Life begins when you step outside your comfort zone” so decided I needed to live by those words. Please be gentle when you watch it, I’m still learning but love that I can now show you Shetland in film and not just pictures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoRKkV81zBo

Shetland Tourism Assessment

Shetland Tourism Association (STA) were recently awarded a grant from the VisitScotland Sector & Destination Operational & Market Readiness Fund. This grant has been provided so that STA may conduct a full assessment of tourism services available in Shetland, all of which have been negatively affected since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Given the challenges of the past year, many of these businesses will have concerns about re-opening. The project aim is to figure out what the concerns are and to establish what level of support will be required going forward to safely reopen.

Island Vista took part in the tendering process and we are delighted to say that we have been successful in that process. It is very important to us that we get this process right, as this research will feed into future developments in the local tourist industry.

Over the next 5 months, we will be contacting tourism service providers by asking them to complete an online survey and then following that up with a telephone interview. We are looking forward to speaking to everyone.