Shetland Wool Adventures Journal - Volume 5

Shetland Wool Adventures is a result of my passion for Shetland heritage, textiles, tourism and the place itself.

My first encounter with Shetland was in 1999 when I joined a school exchange with Anderson High School and I immediately fell in love with these beautiful isles. In fact so much, that in 2004, after graduating from university, I decided to move here.

My first job in Shetland was at the Shetland Islands Tourism Information Centre advising visitors on holiday activities and helping them to plan their stay. This was a fantastic hands-on experience where I learned so much about Shetland and local tourism sector.

Between 2005 and 2008 I worked for VisitScotland as a Marketing Executive for the Shetland area. In 2009, after taking a short break when my son was born, I took on a new challenge when the local government had tasked us with setting up Promote Shetland – a destination management organisation with an aim to promote Shetland as a place to visit, live, work and do business with.

I really enjoyed this job immensely as every day brought something completely different and we were continuously coming up with new innovative ideas for promoting Shetland, as well as developing new products, campaigns and projects.

I am particularly proud of the 60 North magazine and Shetland Wool Week Annual which I developed and of course Shetland Wool Week which has grown into an internationally acclaimed event which celebrates Shetland’s unique textile heritage and rural farming. Amongst other brands or concepts I developed are A Taste of Shetland or Shetland Noir.
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My last job, before deciding to concentrate on Shetland Wool Adventures on a full-time basis, was the Heritage Manager at Shetland Amenity Trust which again was a very interesting role and I was responsible managing and developing the trust’s heritage service including the Shetland Museum and Archives. In June 2018 I left this post and embarked on my very own Shetland Wool Adventure.

What fuels me every single day is the love for Shetland. I have a huge passion for the isles, Shetland wool, heritage, tourism and marketing and I feel very inspired by living here.

It’s a real privilege to be able to live, work and bring up a family in such a wonderful, creative and inspiring place.

So I hope I can share some of my Shetland passion and inspiration with you and perhaps you might join me on your own Shetland Wool Adventure and discover Shetland for yourself.

Misa Hay