Yesterday saw the arrival of a film crew from Speakeasy films, looking to film part of an adventure film on behalf of VisitScotland. The film is to be shown at The World Adventure Travel Summit in Mexico city in October this year to a sold-out conference of over 600 delegates. Scotland will be represented by several adventure companies, Visitscotland and Scottish Development International. It is vitally important that with so much on offer in Scotland on the adventure travel side, that we are well represented at the conference. In 2010 the conference was held in Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland, and was an excellent opportunity to showcase what is available here in Scotland.

While Activities is not our core business here at Torridon, adventure travel is. I would estimate that over 90% of our visitors to Torridon will want to experience an adventure activity, the wildlife, and always the scenery. This year we took the decision to offer free activities to all hotel guests from our weekly programme of events that Torridon Activities offer, to encourage people to stay in the area longer and experience what is available. It has been successful with more people that ever participating in gorge scrambling or kayaking for example.

For filming, I was asked if I could provide any extras from our team of staff between 20-40 years of age and a mixture of boys and girls who could ride a bike. This was not as easy as you think! Niall, Ryan, Tamas and Kate all volunteered for what they thought would be an easy couple of hours fun. Little did they know of the demands of the director, the unpredictable weather and of course the ever annoying midge. In the morning, filming took place on the hill, featuring more adventurous mountain biking provided by Euan Wilson from MTB holidays Scotland. Euan often brings clients to Torridon and stays at the Inn for a couple of days as they explore the tracks and hills around us. The filming was then to take place at the Inn, with everyone enjoying a spot of lunch, soaking up the location and setting the mountain bike scene.

The director had other ideas and off they went to Coulin resort to film some more gentle biking with our four extras in tow. I think Niall had the most fun as he was kind enough to volunteer his bike to one of the Visitscotland ladies, so as to give more balance to the demographic. The upside was that he was able to sit with the rather attractive young lady organising things, drink coffee and engage in a spot of “intellectual conversation”. Our film stars returned around 7pm, a little hungry and tired and with the odd midge bite! I am not convinced they have caught the acting bug, but will look forward to their debut performances.

Torridon and mountain biking provide one element of the film which will also include sea kayaking and hiking from other regions of Scotland. However, we know that the section filmed yesterday will no doubt be the star of the show. Only time will tell whether they have successfully captured the landscape and created an inspiring film, that will encourage travel companies from around the world to send their clients to Scotland, an adventure travel playground.

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