Efforts are being made to charm visitors back to the heart of Speyside – and a new app will be key to the plans.
Dufftown has long been known as the malt whisky capital of the world with its array of distilleries.
And like other towns in the north, it benefits from the large number of tourists that brings.
How to help them enjoy their stay once they get there is where the University of the Highlands and Islands (Moray College) is now focused.
In partnership with the Dufftown and Mortlach Development Trust, they are developing a new app.
This app will be an information portal with community activities, history on sites like the iconic clocktower and much more.
What are the plans for the Dufftown app?
Moray College UHI Dr Malcolm Clark, a computing programme leader, researcher and lecturer is leading the team developing the app.
This project is being funded by an innovation voucher through the Scottish Funding Council.
The idea is to make use of techniques so it can also be applied to rural areas or places where GPS is not an option.
We want to improve tourism and people’s health at the same time.”
Dr Malcolm Clark
Mr Clark explained: “Scottish Funding Council has awarded us just under £5,000 through the Innovation Voucher and UHI topped up our funding for the project with £2,500.
“We have been talking to Anne Jan Zandstra (from the Dufftown and Mortlach Development Trust) for a while, it started off as a project for a student and now it is a team project as it is really technical.
“We are building a proof of concept for the mapping tool that helps bring information together.”
A key part of the app will be promoting activities designed to improve your physical and mental health.
Mr Clark added: “We want people to navigate around Dufftown’s interesting sites and get people into activities like walking trails and community activities like litter picking.
“The app will not depend on having 4G or 3G service, which is key as many rural communities have poor connectivity.
“Dufftown has fairly good connectivity so we are possibly looking at a hybrid model of hotspots for visitors to connect to for local knowledge on walking trails.
“We are looking at if we can provide renewable power for each hotspot by solar or wind.
“Part of my role is to try and take a benchmark of people to see if their mental health has improved over amount of time using the app.
Malcolm Clark
“As well as looking at pulling interactive data from a local hotspot or from a web location.
“We want to improve tourism and people’s health at the same time.
“Part of my role is to try and take a benchmark of people to see if their mental health has improved over amount of time using the app.”
Other communities like Grantown and Aviemore are following this project closely with the vision to possibly replicate the app.
What sparked the app idea?
Back in October 2020, the Press and Journal revealed that owner of The Gables Whisky B&B Mr Zandstra hoped to create a historical app to help whisky loving tourists learn more about Dufftown’s rich history.
At the time, he said: “A lot of tourists come to Dufftown because they want to visit the distilleries in the malt whisky capital of the world and don’t really explore the town.
“There is a lot of history in Dufftown and at first I was thinking of just putting up plaques on the walls. However, that can be really expensive.
“We get loads of people who are over here for whisky-related trips and it would be great to have more people visit Dufftown itself.”
“If everything goes right, we could have the app running in April.”
Mr Zandstra runs a website where he showcases everything he has learned about Dufftown’s history after months of researching.