New Website for Oban

In my role as chair of the local marketing group - OLTA - for the tourism industry in Oban I'm feeling pretty chuffed that our new http://www.oban.org.uk/ website is up and running. It's always been very popular but now the back end of the site has been redesigned so users can select not only the type of accommodation they wish to stay in but also refine their search by criteria such as: distance from Oban, star rating, wifi access, pets welcome, children welcome and disabled access.

OLTA has a new logo too - as you can see it's brighter, cleaner and more contemporary than our old one. The marketing group has a lot of exciting projects on the go in 2009. We are carrying out a re-branding exercise for Oban, which will be positioned as 'The Seafood Capital of Scotland'. We're running full colour half page ads in the Herald and Scotland on Sunday and rolling this programme out to regional papers in Newcastle and Yorkshire.

There's also other exiting projects underway in Oban which OLTA supports:

• Oban Bay Marine have full planning permission for their developement of a short stay marina in Oban Bay.


• Dunollie House has a major event planned for Homecoming 2009 and its Heritage Centre plans are well underway


• The new golf course development to the north of the town centre (between Connel and Oban) looks likely to go ahead


• The cycle route between Oban and Fortwilliam has many sections completed already and work is underway on joining the various routes up


• Oban Hogmanay's event was voted 3rd best in Scotland and is now a firm feature in the calendar


• Homecoming 2009 sees plenty of events and festival in Oban this year so check out their website for full details.

If you have not been to Oban for a few years you will see many changes for the better in and around the town. For that matter, if you have not been to Cologin for several years you will find us much improved as well. In this business, as in life, you can never afford to stand still - otherwise you go backwards!