Congratulations to the Hell Bay Hotel for picking up a silver award and to the New Inn Tresco for its bronze award at last night’s South West Tourism Award. Juliet’s Garden was highly-commended. All well deserved!

The Islands’ Partnership has announced four additional training dates to help its members get started and feeling confident about using social media to market their businesses. Twitter training will take place on Thursday 13th February and Tuesday 11th March, whilst Facebook training will take place on Friday 14th February and Thursday 13th March. All sessions run from 9.30am - 11.30am at the Life Long Learning Centre at Carn Gwaval (next to the Sports Hall). Maximum 12 people per session; first come, first served. Free to members. To book, call 01720 424036 or email [email protected]

All residents living on Scilly are eligible for a special parking rate at Newquay Airport - just £1 a day (per car) for a minimum of 3 months. The deal has been negotiated by the Economic Development team at the Council of the Isles of Scilly, but we wanted to be sure that our members are aware of it. Call Newquay Airport on 01637 860600 or email [email protected] for more information, or download the application here. Newquay Airport - Application for Long Term Hard Standing Parking

Two island residents have been selected to contribute regularly to Cornwall Life magazine following a writing competition in November and December 2013 to find a Scilly columnist.

Dave Mawer and Juliet May were among several entrants, and the two judges – Carol Burns, Editor of Cornwall Life, and Alasdair Moore, Islands’ Partnership Director – couldn’t choose between the two top entries, so they will both share the honours of writing features throughout the year for the monthly glossy.

Cornwall Life has a special 12-page report about Scilly in the February 2014 issue, which hits the newsstands tomorrow. Both Juliet’s and Dave’s columns are included – telling readers why Scilly is so special to them. The feature also mentions many Islands’ Partnership member businesses, tourism spots and things to do such as snorkelling with seals and the upcoming Walk Scilly week in April.

From April until the end of the year, Cornwall Life will include Isles of Scilly stories in a double-page spread in every issue. The publication will work closely with the Islands’ Partnership as well as Dave and Juliet for story ideas and events on which to focus.

Mumford’s will have copies of Cornwall Life on sale. You can also subscribe to receive digital or print copies of Cornwall Life by going to www.cornwalllife.co.uk, whilst individual copies of the magazine can be purchased via www.buyermag.com.

Cornwall Life is a monthly glossy publication, with a readership of 40,000.

St Mary’s Boatman Fraser Hicks, representing the Isles of Scilly, has made the shortlist of the national “Tourism Superstar 2014” awards. Fraser is one of just 10 Superstar nominees to make the shortlist from the whole of England.

The award, which was launched by VisitEngland two years ago as part of English Tourism Week (this year running 29th March to 6th April), recognises the dedication and passion of those working in the tourism industry, and is awarded to an individual who goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure visitors to England have a priceless experience. The winner will be announced on 29th March, after a public vote commencing 1st March.

Today’s official announcement was made by VisitEngland in today’s edition of the Daily Mirror (Travel Section). Fraser will now travel to London in mid-February to be filmed alongside the other nine hopefuls, with the film then featured on the Mirror’s website. He will also attend the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence in May.

The competition, which is organised by VisitEngland in partnership with The Daily Mirror and Mirror Online, is an integral part of VisitEngland’s English Tourism Week. Last year, it attracted some 4,000 votes on Mirror online and generated more than 60 pieces of press coverage including exposure on BBC Breakfast.

We now have an Islands’ Partnership Facebook Group set up for members only. This is a discussion forum - somewhere we can post questions, share ideas, notify each other of events and provide feedback etc in a private arena. You can request to join the Group by going to https://www.facebook.com/groups/islandspartnership/. Or click on the Facebook logo on the IP website home page. Carolyn and Amy are administrators and they will approve requests to join the group. We will be looking to theme our discussions, so if you have any ideas, please do let us know!

Guidelines about the new Visit Isles of Scilly brand are now available for IP members to peruse. The document contains information about our overall brand “essence”, the hook on which we hand all marketing communications, our brand values and how we want our visitors to feel when they come to Scilly. The document also looks at our new logo, and explains its colour and design. It also contains the “shared story” which first appeared in the Blue Sail Report. This is our template for all our communications; our starting point on how we communicate as one voice. Finally, there are some practical tips about using photography and a writer’s guide.

The Brand Guidelines can be found in the members’ section, or email us and request a copy.

Fraser Hicks, the skipper of the Sea King, has been voted in by the Islands’ Partnership directors as the Isles of Scilly’s Tourism Superstar representative. We have submitted our nomination to Visit England who now select a shortlist of 10 “superstars” from all the applications they receive, to go forward to the Tourism Superstar 2014 Awards, organised by Visit England in conjunction with The Daily Mirror and Mirror Online.