Visit Scotland | Alba

This directorate has a strong focus on collaboration and partnership working, developing and maintaining strategic relationships with a wide range of partners.

Its main aim is to ensure that tourism and events is seen as an important and valuable industry for Scotland. It harnesses the power of partnerships, collaborating locally, nationally, and globally with a range of partners and stakeholders. These include:

  • tourism businesses
  • industry and sector bodies
  • destination management organisations and communities
  • local authorities
  • enterprise agencies
  • Scottish events sector
  • UK and international partners

The team leads the delivery of our role in national tourism and events strategies – Scotland Outlook 2030 and Scotland the Perfect Stage 2024-2035.

In this article:

Director of Industry and Events – Rob Dickson

Rob Dickson is a highly experienced individual who joined VisitScotland in 2021 from Scottish Borders Council where he was most recently Executive Director (Corporate Improvement & Economy). Before that, he worked for the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames.

He was pivotal in setting up the South of Scotland Enterprise agency. He led on economic development in the Scottish Borders and has worked closely with stakeholders and public agencies across tourism and events.

Rob is a former international rugby referee and carried out military service for three years with The Royal Scots.

Destination Development

This team is led by Ken Massie and is focused on:

  • VisitScotland’s contribution to the development of regional and destination strategies
  • identifying regional priorities, and opportunities with a focus on key outcomes, data and insights to inform our work
  • championing tourism and events as part of the Regional Economic Partnership (REP) structures across the country
  • supporting the development of transformational national and regional investments
  • informing spending and planning on investment in infrastructure to realise maximum tourism impacts, including delivery of the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund (RTIF)
  • engage with relevant national initiatives and policy outcomes
  • an enquiry and support service for industry

EventScotland

Rebecca Edser leads the EventScotland team. Its primary focus is to build on Scotland’s credentials as a leading events destination. As part of this, they:

  • bid for and develop a strong sporting and cultural events portfolio with the help of direct investment and other support
  • manage investments via funding programmes to support public-facing events staged in Scotland
  • devise and put in place strategies and plans to meet the overall goals of VisitScotland
  • maximise and measure the impact of events in Scotland
  • build strong relationships and work with partners to bid for and secure major sporting, cultural, and business events

Through our partnership working, Scotland has hosted some of the world’s biggest events, including:

  • 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships
  • 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships
  • The Open Championships
  • COP26
  • UEFA EURO 2020
  • The 2019 Solheim Cup
  • 2018 European Championships
  • The 2014 Ryder Cup
  • 2014 Commonwealth Games
  • MTV EMAs 2014

Find out more about the major sporting and cultural events that EventScotland is supporting in 2024 and beyond.

Visit our upcoming major events page.

Industry Engagement

Marie Christie leads the Industry Engagement team. The team delivers a range of activities to support the tourism and events industry. These include:

  • providing leadership, prioritisation and coordination for all our sector-based work
  • building strong relationships with key sector groups and a clear understanding of national sector strategies
  • developing sector plans and inputs as part of regional plans
  • delivering improved resources, support and knowledge sharing through new business support model (digital and one-to-many)
  • creation and delivery of excellent, responsible events such as VisitScotland Connect, The Scottish Thistle Awards Programme and Golf Programme
  • delivering event-based industry engagement and development opportunities

Related links

Chief Executive’s Office

The directorate consists of Corporate Communications, Human Resources and Insight. It fulfils a strategic support function for the organisation.

Our team

Find out about our directorates and meet our Board, Chair, and Chief Executive.