Visit Scotland | Alba

The purpose of our marketing is to grow the value of tourism and events to Scotland. We do this by prioritising key markets and audiences to expand Scotland's share of global travel and ensure tourism is a force for good.

Our strategy is an integrated mix of consumer and intermediary marketing. This enables us to make Scotland discoverable across the visitor journey, from awareness to planning and booking.

We also use the power of advocacy by sharing real, powerful, and enriching experiences and stories from Scotland. Think passionate people, thriving places, diverse businesses, and memorable experiences.

In this article:

Strategy success is a balance of four key outcomes

Spread

Encourage customer visits throughout the year and across Scotland.

Spend

Increase quality experiences driving higher spend for each visit.

Sustainability

Improve environmental and community impact.

Satisfaction

From the visitor experience and for those within the visitor ecosystem.

Integrated consumer marketing

Our consumer marketing targets the US, UK and other key markets across the globe. Its aim is to make it easier for people to discover Scotland’s unique and memorable experiences.

Based on data and insights, we target future visitors early in the travel inspiration and research stage, where we can have greatest impact and influence. This includes high impact brand media to raise awareness of Scotland. We then convert these lookers into bookers via marketing with online travel agents and transport partnerships.

Our owned channels showcase tourism and events experiences year-round. The content and messaging is tailored based on audience insights, time of year, and planning lead times for each market. We encourage visitors to share their experiences widely and by doing so become advocates for Scotland.

See our marketing calendar for our spotlight themes for 2024.

Find out more about our target markets.

Leveraging partnerships

We aim to extend our marketing reach to wider audiences for a greater impact. We do so by working with regional, destination, sector, and commercial partners who share similar strategic objectives.

This helps drive awareness, consideration, and bookings for Scotland throughout the visitor journey.

Our reputation and expertise allows us to get the best from quality content and media partnerships and relationships. This helps us to deliver global reach with earned press coverage.

Our partnership marketing includes a mix of:

  • match-funded promotional activity
  • in-kind support
  • collaborative projects
  • amplification of partner activity
  • regional campaign delivery

Find out more about our partnership activity.

Intermediary development

We provide business-to-business marketing opportunities. This connects the right products and businesses to the right intermediary channels. It's also an effective tool in the shift to sustainable tourism. We also:

  • support the internationalisation of Scottish tourism businesses
  • provide key intermediary account management
  • organise targeted events, including our showcase travel trade event - VisitScotland Connect
  • deliver intermediary marketing activities
  • help influence and support the development of products and experiences that visitors demand

Find out more about our intermediary activity.

Related links

Working with the press

Find out how our PR activity can benefit your business and the role press can play in your business' marketing strategy.

Partnership marketing activities

Find out how we work with partners who share common objectives. Together, we set up scalable marketing opportunities and campaigns for the growth of…