Music, film, design and photography professionals are set to meet and swap ideas with tourism sector representatives during a full day conference on Friday, March 10, in Dingwall's Tulloch Castle Hotel.
 
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the main sponsor for the event, sees that there are a lot the two sectors could share with each other.
 
Chris Taylor, senior tourism manager at HIE, said: "Tourism is one of biggest industries in the Highlands and Islands, but with competition now coming from over 200 world-wide destinations we need to work hard at delivering value for money and great visitor experiences. Developing links between creative industries and tourism businesses can really help us differentiate the Highlands and Islands and create a world class tourism destination."
 
The line-up of speakers for this groundbreaking event includes venture capitalist Graham Lean, renowned tourism scholar Professor John Lennon, international fashion photographer Norrie MacLaren, technology expert Rob Murray of ITP Solutions, and media consultant Mike Russell.  
 
Jeremy Sim, project manager for the Association of Integrated Media in the Highlands and Islands, said: "Lots of tourism organisations around the world use literature, film and photography to their advantage - New Zealand has created tourist trails around Lord of the Rings, for example.
 
"On a smaller scale the two industries can work together to give new legs to old myths or even design completely new experiences.''
 
The conference is the culmination of a series of workshops exploring interactions between the creative and tourism sectors. The previous workshops have identified  four themes - developing rich content, technology, investment, and  generating  revenue that need to be addressed before a more content-led approach to tourism can thrive.

The event is sponsored by Highlands & Islands Enterprise and the EU Northern Periphery Program, more details can be found at http://www.aim-hi.org/creativetourism.html.