Macdonald to revamp Aviemore

Macdonald hotels, the Scottish hotels company, is spearheading a £30m project to redevelop the rundown ski resort of Aviemore in an attempt to put the former Highlands tourist hotspot back on the map.

Macdonald has teamed up with Teesloch, a construction company, and Bank of Scotland, to form a consortium to develop the Highlands town into an upmarket year-round destination. The group is investing £18m in the project, which was 17-years in the making, with an additional £6.5m coming from Moray Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

The hotels group, which will own one-third of the new development, is investing £900,000 in Aviemore Highland Resort. Known formerly as the Aviemore Centre, the town's heyday was during the Sixties when the likes of Tom Jones would spend the winter season there entertaining the resort's guests.

Macdonald – the UK's eighth-biggest hotels group – is also investing £5m in its existing resort of Dalfaber, based in Aviemore.

The redevelopment plans for the new Aviemore resort include the upgrading of the Aviemore Highland hotel, conference, retail and leisure facilities, mainstream housing and an exhibition centre and business place. The consortium is hoping to be awarded National Park status.

Donald Macdonald, the chief executive of Macdonald Hotels, has been involved with the project, which was given the official green light yesterday, for 25 years. "We see Aviemore and the surrounding area as a natural hub for Highland tourism – one which can take its place as an international tourist destination and centre of excellence for business tourism," he said. "The completed development at Aviemore will have enormous benefits for the wider area and plans include a substantial destination marketing campaign which will bring economic benefits throughout it."

Macdonald has 99 hotels across the UK, including the Complete Angler at Marlow and The Crown, in Amersham, where a scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral was filmed. The Dalfaber development will include a 100-room hotel with an 18-hole championship golf course.