Visit Scotland | Alba

This Strategy and Competitive Intelligence Directorate is responsible for providing a holistic view of the global travel and events environment through a comprehensive set of insights identifying and prioritising opportunities for sustainable economic growth.

The directorate is also responsible for the organisation’s Corporate Communications function, including Government and Parliamentary Affairs. These teams work to enhance the profile of the visitor economy across a broad range of stakeholders and showcase our role in  growing its value to Scotland.

Key areas of focus are:

  • corporate reputation
  • strategic stakeholder engagement
  • strategic planning
  • competitive intelligence
  • horizon scanning
  • consumer and industry trends
  • data analysis
  • innovative tools and methodologies
  • support to cross-functional strategic projects
  • capability building

In this article:

Director of Strategy and Competitive Intelligence – Cat Leaver

An award-winning strategic leader with experience across the private and public sectors, Cat was appointed Director of Strategy and Competitive Intelligence in November 2024.

She had previously led departments across VisitScotland, ranging from user experience (UX) and front-end development to content, creative, PR, and global campaigns.

Before joining the organisation, Cat was the inaugural Director of Brand Scotland, where she led a cross-agency initiative to enhance Scotland’s global profile.

She also spent more than seven years in the digital agency world, leading teams in London, Manchester, and Glasgow, and serving a diverse global client base.

Cat is an ambassador for the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice and has held non-executive board positions, as well as advisory board roles with City Nation Place and The Marketing Society of Scotland.

Corporate Communications

Our Corporate Communications department is led by Carolyn Churchill. The team:

  • manages and protects VisitScotland's reputation
  • delivers effective communications to engage and inform stakeholder groups of our activity and the importance of the visitor economy to Scotland’s economic growth
  • works with a wide range of groups including the media, Scottish Government and the tourism and events industry
  • engages with staff to support them to be Scottish tourism ambassadors
  • leads on our response to crisis situations related to both internal and / or external matters that impact our organisation or the Scottish tourism landscape

Insight

Susan Dickie leads the Insight department. The team focuses on several areas, which include:

  • developing and delivering a strategic insight and competitive intelligence programme
  • ensuring we have a comprehensive understanding of the global travel and events environment to fully inform our priorities and our partners in the visitor economy
  • informing and guiding the development of robust, forward-looking and measurable plans
  • conducting market research, trendspotting and statistical analysis
  • delivering economic assessments, digital analytics and data analysis
  • providing knowledge and insight to colleagues, partners and industry

Strategy

The Strategy team  is in the process of being established. This team will:

  • grow our global networks and translate market intelligence into meaningful strategic recommendations that drive long-term success
  • set the vision and establish plans, working across functions to support prioritisation, to achieve organisational goals
  • work in close collaboration with Insights to develop a robust measurement and evaluation framework, demonstrating our impact across strategic priorities
  • report to our executive team and Scottish Government on our contribution to the National Strategy for Economic Transformation and National Performance Framework
  • deliver key strategic outputs including the corporate plan, annual report, responsible tourism strategy, Gaelic strategy and international networks
  • assess competitor activity, analyse and ascertain the landscape for future growth, and outline impactful recommendations for growth
  • support the industry and organisation partners in the visitor economy with strategic intelligence to inform or refresh national, sector or place-based strategies
  • work with Scottish public sector agencies and the not-for-profit sector who are key stakeholders in the development and delivery of Scotland’s tourism and event strategies

Related links

Industry and Events Directorate

This directorate supports destinations, sectors and businesses to help develop a strong and dynamic tourism and events industry for Scotland.

Marketing and Digital Directorate

This directorate positions Scotland as a must visit, must return, year-round destination for leisure and business visitors. It drives economic growth…

Our team

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