‘A Taste for Events’ (www.EventScotland.org) offers simple and expert advice to anyone organising an event in Scotland. It provides contacts for local food groups, farmers’ markets, professional caterers and certification schemes – a comprehensive database of local producers and suppliers.

The guide aims to build on the momentum created by the Scottish Government’s national food and drink policy, ‘Recipe for Success’, which has helped increase awareness of Scottish produce.

The publication has been prepared by the industry’s Tourism Innovation Group with support from the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Scotland Food & Drink, VisitScotland and EventScotland. It is part of ongoing work with visitor attractions, pubs, hotels and restaurants to capitalise on the £700 million spent on food and drink by visitors to Scotland each year.

Through ‘Recipe for Success’, a programme of work is under way with leading visitor attractions to increase the standard and volume of fresh, seasonal produce on offer. A food and visitor attractions summit will be held next month. A provenance toolkit will also shortly be rolled out to visitor attractions in partnership with the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions.

Speaking at the Scottish Tourism Forum’s ‘Highland Question’ seminar in Inverness yesterday, Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “Each year over 15 million visitors come to Scotland, spending over £4 billion, and almost a fifth of that is spent on food and drink. We know that visitors are willing to pay a premium for food and drink with a local provenance. This presents a major opportunity for Scottish tourism and food businesses.

“This new online guide will help events organisers make the most of our wonderful produce. Whether you are planning a major event or something smaller in scale, there is now an abundance of expert advice and list of contacts in the one place to ensure you can source the finest fresh, seasonal and local produce. By working together we can build on Scotland’s fantastic food revolution.”

Mr Lochhead added: “This guide is not happening in isolation. Later this month I will launch a toolkit which will make it easier for the food service sector to tell consumers about the origin of the food they sell. We have also been working closely with the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions to develop an event focused on the role that food and drink plays as part of the visitor experience.

"Next month’s summit will showcase examples of how visitor attractions are benefiting from the high-quality produce available on their doorsteps."

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