New loyalty card scheme for Huntly

The Huntly Business Association and Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership are proposing to launch a Loyalty Card Scheme for businesses in the town. This would be similar to schemes operating in Haslemere, Surrey and Frodsham, Cheshire.

The scheme uses smart card technology to accumulate points towards a reward for loyalty to the individual business. One card is able to record information for any business in the scheme but each is kept separate from the others. Cards are purchased by customers from outlets and bear the logo for the scheme an for the particular business. Rewards are given, usually in the form of vouchers, on reaching a certain number of points and are redeemable on a return visit to the outlet.

The aim of the Scheme is to provide an incentive to return to an outlet to accumulate points and to redeem rewards. It also builds loyalty to the town, providing a reason to shop in Huntly rather than elsewhere.

It is hoped to launch the Scheme in September/October 2008 and businesses are being canvassed for support until 25 July 2008. The Scheme will be supported by ATP and Aberdeenshire Council with the provision of funding for the initial launch and for the first years of operation.

Huntly, one year on

I've been remiss in posting and it's nearly a year since the last, and a lot has happened in Huntly. A brief update on some of the previous posts.

Huntly & District Tourism Action Group has been very active. Last Halloween there was a two day event to celebrate food in Huntly - the Huntly Hairst. This was extremely successful and work has started on a repeat this year. Also the development of a series of walking and cycling trails, the Strathbogie and Cabrach Trail network, is progressing well. Other projects are also being undertaken.

Huntly-online is pretty moribund, it's still there but no changes since last year. The website for Huntly is now at www.huntly.net and carries information on all tourism, business and community matters. The site was developed by another designer who had been working on the community site for some time on a volunteer basis. I'm involved with managing the business section on behalf of the Huntly Business Association.

Huntly Folk Club is still active but not at the Rose and Thistle which has recently closed (yet another empty space in the town centre). Meetings at the moment are at the Huntly Hotel on the third Wednesday of the month. Another very active venue is Gartly Tin Hut - drop-in sessions every last Thursday in the month and regular monthly concerts of invited artists. I've just been designing the website at www.tinhutsessions.co.uk, now actively managed by Fraser Wilson of Huntly Herbs.

Huntly Business Association is currently looking seriously at a possible loyalty card scheme for the town. A meeting last night was quite well-attended and enough interest was shown to move to the next stage. More information to follow.

I've updated my own website (www.integrawebdesign.co.uk) to coincide with my move to Rhynie. I'm hoping it might bring some more business...

Latest tourism meeting

A meeting was held last night to discuss the formation of a 'tourism forum' for Huntly. Attendance was small, 13 people, but represented a cross-section of the business community although lacking any of the larger businesses.

Les Allan from Aberdeenshire Council and Donald Boyd, ATP town coordinator, presented their perspectives on the future for tourism in Huntly. Carolyn Maniukiewicz of Ideas in Partnership gave some useful insights into how the tourism strategy had worked for Turriff.

Members of the audience expressed thier support for the formation of a steering group or committee to over see developments but it was suggested that it should be renamed as an 'Action Group' rather than a forum as action is needed rather than more discussion. Those present were asked to submit some ideas for consideration by the new group and to attend a further meeting together with at least one other person to progress the ideas.

The next meeting was proposed for Monday 11 September 2006 at 7pm. The location provisionally to be the Huntly Learning Centre (to be confirmed).

Listing on Huntly-online

Progress of listing on the website has been very disappointing, in fact just about non-existent.

After initial contacts with about 30 businesses, many expressed interest in the project. The general opinion seemed to be that the site was a welcome addition to the promotion of the town. However, to date this has not resulted in anyone signing up.

Results in search engines are building up and visitor numbers are growing. Depending on which statistics are used, there could be up to 80 visitors a day. MSN, Yahoo and Google are now showing the site in searches, depending on the keywords entered.

This week at Huntly-Online

Monday evening I attended a meeting about the community website, www.huntly.net. This is currently being revamped after sitting dormant for a couple of years. It appears to be mainly needed by community organisations such as the Community Council and schools for making information, such as minutes of meetings, available to residents. As such I don't see too much overlap with Huntly-Online which is more business orientated. Further developments will be monitored.

After approaching local businesses there has been some interest although nobody has signed up yet. Tesco and Asda have both agreed to take a look, other companies are considering it.

Tourism meeting

A meeting was held last night at the Gordon Arms to hear Ian Dunlop of VisitScotland talk about tourism opportunities for Huntly.

The meeting was well attended and heard a very interesting and informative presentation which prompted a useful and lively discussion.

I think the main point to come out of the meeting was the necessity to promote Huntly and for all groups to work together with a common aim.

New venue for folk club

On Wednesday night we attended the first meeting of the revived Huntly Folk Club.

The meeting was held at the newly refurbished Rose and Thistle Bistro on Duke Street - a fine place for a quiet drink or meal. They even have a guest ale - Cairngorm Trade Winds at the time of writing! Just the sort of place Huntly needs.

The meeting was very well attended, filling the side bar to bursting. Some excellent performances from well-known local artists, led by Keith Cockburn.

Future folk nights will, hopefully, become a regular occurrence on every third Wednesday of the month.