Youngsters from a north-east secondary school hope to help drive visitors onto the region newest tourist attraction.
The North East 250 was launched last year as a way for people to take in the “best of” rural Aberdeenshire and Moray.
It is the region’s answer to the North Coast 500 and the US’s Route 66, which each draw thousands of tourists to their areas each year.
And this week, pupils from Banff Academy challenged themselves to design a range of materials to help promote the journey.
The visited Ballindalloch Castle to meet with the route’s creator, Guy Macpherson-Grant, and presented him with leaflets that could, eventually, be incorporated into promotional material to help spread information about the attraction.
Last night, he said he was “amazed” by the pupil’s ingenuity.
“The designs we were looking at were exceptional,” he said.
“They had whittled them down from 200 to about eight and it was difficult to choose the best one from that.”
Mr Macpherson-Grant said he had been sufficiently impressed by the quality of designs and enthusiasm of the youngsters that he might enlist their help in the future.
Following their visit to the castle, he gave the pupils, all from year one, a tour of the grounds before inviting them to enjoy a picnic.
This summer will be the first with the NE250 in existence.
Mr Macpherson-Grant says he is “realistic” about the impact it will have in its first year.
“What we hope is that the idea of driving around the north-east will get into the hearts and minds of people,” he said.
“It is a driving route that people can understand and appreciate.
“We’ve got to have an attractive proposition for people and we are hopeful that is what the concept of the NE250 is.”
The pupils work was kick-started by Visit Aberdeenshire, when David McCubbin presented to the school outlining the importance of tourism and information and communication technology (ICT) to the region.
He said: “Tourism and the role of ICT is growing in importance in terms of local employment opportunities and allowing north east Scotland to gain access to and grow market share within Scotland’s growing visitor economy.”
