Activity Report

HITRANS has established a network of stakeholders including transport operators, tourism professionals and local council transport officers. This has met to scope out the project which has led to the preparation of a brief for marketing consultancy for Giant Puffin. The successful company was appointed in February 2011. Work is underway with specialist IT management advice on going out to tender on the website and on mobile applications. A demonstration took place with specialists involved in the provision of wi-fi hotspots in remote areas.

Partner Meetings Meetings with partners: First ScotRail and members of HITRANS Rail Advisory Group (14/09/10) Calmac (27/10/10), HITRANS advisors (12/11/10) Cairngorms National Park (16/11/10) Traveline Scotland (19/11/10), HITRANS finance officer (02/12/10) , IT business consultant (17/12/10).

Marketing Strategy Appointment of marketing consultants. View Marketing were appointed by tender to handle marketing/branding. They have devised a marketing strategy in conjunction with our partners. Phase 1 was completed by 31/03 /11 and reported on 05/04/11.

VisitScotland On 21/04/11 a meeting was held with VistScotland. As a result Giant Puffin travel information will be used by vs.com, with the 'powered by Giant Puffin' wizard being added to visithighland.com

Finance The first claim was sent to our Swedish lead partner on 26/04/11

Wi-fi Highland Wifi carried out a remote hotspot trial at Arisaig, creating a dummy HITRANS home page for internet access. This had led to a project to install a wi-fi hotspot at Inverness Bus Station that will allow free time limited access via Giant Puffin/HITRANS log-in. This will provide the bus company with useful marketing data and, if a network of these is developed, will allow visitors to follow the Giant Puffin.