SPECTRA Scotland’s Festival of Light 2024, Aberdeen. © VisitScotland / Kenny Lam |
Driving the visitor economy and growing its value to Scotland |
I’m a firm believer that to shape the future, we must first reflect on the past. Over the last year, that’s exactly what we have been doing at VisitScotland, analysing shifts in financial, political, and travel landscapes to understand our strengths, where we can make the greatest impact, and what our stakeholders — whether visitors, businesses, or decision makers — need from us.
Fortunately, we have an excellent track record of evolving as an organisation and this marks the next stage of our evolution. One that sets us up for the future as an economic growth agency, whose core purpose is to drive the visitor economy, growing its value to Scotland. We’re using data and insight, and working closely with our destination and sector partners, to ensure we are reaching the right audiences, offering the right support to businesses and prioritising the markets where we see growth and potential.
You can read more on this in my latest blog, but before I sign off, can I just say a huge congratulations to both the finalists and winners at this year’s Scottish Thistle Awards. This is a remarkable achievement and shines a spotlight on the excellent tourism and event offerings available right across Scotland.
Enjoy your latest edition of the Tourism Insider.
Kind regards
Vicki Miller
Chief Executive, VisitScotland |
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VisitScotland website on a mobile. © VisitScotland / Connor Mollison |
New business support programme |
We’re creating a new approach to business support that will reach more businesses through a year-round programme of free-to-access support. This includes the delivery of a new Business Support Hub website, providing tourism and event businesses access to sector-specific advice, resources and opportunities. Get the latest on the progress we’ve made. |
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Person using a laptop.
© VisitScotland / Luigi Di Pasquale
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| Influence our business support |
Joining our user panel gives you the opportunity to influence the development of the Business Support Hub website. As part of the panel, you'll get to feedback on what's being created to help us make sure it best meets the needs of businesses. Your feedback will be critical to the website development.
Join our user panel |
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New equality, diversity, and inclusivity playbook launched |
A new resource aiming to help promote equality, diversity, and inclusion for festivals and events has been launched by academics at University of the West of Scotland. This playbook aims to support those responsible for planning, organising, and delivering festivals and events to embed equality, diversity, and inclusion from the outset. |
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Lunan Bay Farm, Angus. © VisitScotland / Luigi Di Pasquale |
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Visitors are seeking more meaningful travel experiences with a deeper understanding of their impact on their own and the planets’ wellbeing. We’ve created a new visitor proposition, Good for the Soul, which allows us to showcase the many reasons why a visitor should choose to visit Scotland. Discover how to get involved.
Read the top tips |
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Isles of Glencoe Restaurant. © VisitScotland / David N Anderson |
| Current marketing activity |
In order to reach the right audiences with the right messages, we need to understand what’s driving our visitors. We know they're seeking meaningful and sustainable travel experiences with particular interest from visitors in the UK, France, Germany, and the United States. Take a look at how our activity plans to reach those visitors.
Read more |
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Martha the Coo from Clover Cottage near Crail. © John Murray |
| #Coosday – celebrating 10 years |
A fun social media series celebrating the hardy Highland cow across our consumer social channels is celebrating its 10-year anniversary – with one recent post reaching over three million people.
Social media series success |
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Scottish Thistle Award national winners, 2024. © VisitScotland / Carlos Paloni |
Tourism winners crowned at national final |
On Friday 21 November, 19 incredible tourism businesses, events and individuals were crowned the national winners of the Scottish Thistle Awards. The Scottish Thistle Awards, with headline sponsors Johnstons of Elgin, celebrate the very best of the tourism and events industry. They have become an annual celebration of innovation, collaboration and sheer excellence in the sector. Well done to all! |
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Glasgow skyline. © VisitScotland / Kenny Lam |
Latest tourism and events news |
Our industry website hosts the latest from across Scotland. Here’s what you may have missed: |
- The Glasgow 2030 Tourism Strategy one year on
- Businesses can contribute to NatureScot's National Park consultation
- Macs Adventure achieves the prestigious B Corp Certification
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Industry event. © VisitScotland / Trevor Martin |
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Our calendar of industry events is a great way to keep up to date on what is available. There’s a range of industry events and webinars coming up that could be of interest to you. From digital to inclusive tourism to networking - take a look.
Industry events calendar |
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Next phase of the UK's electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme |
Visiting nationals from non-European countries who can currently travel visa-free to the UK will need an ETA by 8 January 2025. This includes countries such as the US, Canada, Japan and New Zealand. Nationals from these countries can apply for an ETA from 27 November 2024.
Discover how the UK's electronic travel authorisation scheme might impact some of your visitors and learn more about it so you can keep your visitors informed. |
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VisitScotland, Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG |
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