Council backing for tourism body

The new body will promote tourism across Dumfries and Galloway

Plans to establish a new industry-led organisation to enhance tourism in Dumfries and Galloway have won support in principle from the local authority.

However, a detailed report is to be prepared on financing the destination development organisation (DDO).

A key question is the potential impact on funding for Visitscotland which has secured a £210,000 payment from the council to continue promoting the area.

The DDO proposal is being spearheaded by the region's tourism partnership.

Chairwoman Joan Mitchell said she believed the DDO - which will be called Destination Dumfries and Galloway - and VisitScotland could operate alongside one another.

She added: "I think there is a real desire within the tourism businesses to take this forward, and to work in parallel and in a complementary way to VisitScotland.

"The decision to give funding to VisitScotland and at the same time to take forward the DDO was absolutely essential, but I have got to say there is a momentum about this - by the end of this month we will have formed a shadow board for the DDO."

'No exception'

Meanwhile, the regional director for VisitScotland, Sandi Halliwell, said she was hopeful that additional funding could be identified to support both organisations which, she said, were ultimately working towards the same goal.

"We obviously want to work really closely with all the partners, as we have always done in Dumfries and Galloway," she said.

"The destination development organisation will be no exception - we want to work really closely with them because their role, as we all see it, is to help the industry develop the tourism offering so that VisitScotland can make the best of that to market it to as wide an audience as possible."