Tourist board VisitScotland has enlisted a Spanish blogger to help attract European visitors to the country.

Diego Ponti, a 47-year-old travel blogger from Madrid, was given the opportunity to tour the country and sample Scots hospitality by VisitScotland.

The organisation's international marketing team put together an itinerary that saw Ponti try out many of the experiences promoted in the 'Meet the Scots' advertising campaign.

VisitScotland hopes Ponti's down to earth videos recounting meetings with friendly locals will help attract more of his countrymen to travel over.

Spain is Scotland’s fourth largest market for leisure trips, with around 172,000 Spanish visitors bringing in more than £80million for the Scottish economy and bolstering local businesses.

Ponti visited a range of Scottish landmarks, took piping lessons and recorded his travels in an online video and image blog which has garnered thousands of hits.

The videos show his meetings with some of the Scots who fronted the country's £1.25m European touring campaign, including a Loch Ness Expert and a world renowned bagpipe player.

Malcolm Roughead, VisitScotland's chief executive, said: "Undeniably the first six months of this year have been challenging in terms of attracting our European visitors - we’ve had the ash cloud and airport closures alongside economic instability across many European countries.

“That said, tourism is a remarkably resilient industry and working together with our tourism partners across the country our marketing drives are keeping Scotland firmly in the international spotlight and reminding visitors that there’s always more to discover.

"Let’s not forget tourism is one of our largest exports, bringing in some £11billion for the economy annually. And that’s why we’re always evolving and looking at new and exciting ways to capture our potential visitors’ imaginations. There’s never any room for complacency when you’re selling Scotland to the world.”