Market development

1. Influencing our visitors

Globally, the appetite for travel and events remains strong. Consumers show an increasing desire for authentic travel experiences. These include access to the outdoors, unique culture, and local food and drink experiences. So, we work with the industry to create these sustainable experiences, get them to market, and in front of potential visitors. 

Scotland can build on our strong competitive advantage with an array of powerfully enriching experiences.

These showcase and utilise our iconic natural environment, signature events, built facilities, cultural identity and heritage, and our people. 

Most visitors nowadays use online resources and travel specialists to plan and book all aspects of their trips, before they arrive at their destination.

Responding to this shift in consumer behaviour, we’ve invested our expertise and resources into a digital-first strategy to increase Scotland’s share of global travel. 

Through a data and insight-led approach, we ensure that Scotland is discoverable in key markets. We target the channels visitors are using for travel inspiration, planning, and booking to drive the visitor economy. In doing so, we aim to influence visitors to make more responsible trips.

Our key markets

We focus on national and international markets and aim to maintain and grow the domestic market. Simultaneously, we aim to build international awareness and increase market share.

• Core markets: UK, France and Germany
• Growth market: US
• Short haul opportunity markets: Southern Europe, the Netherlands and the Nordics
• Long haul opportunity markets: Australia, Canada, China, the UAE and India

2. Integrated consumer marketing

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 tour operators, online travel agents and transport partnerships. For example, joint marketing activity with The Travel Corporation (TTC) and Wolters.

We invest in the channels we know visitors are using to influence their travel decisions before they get to Scotland. By encouraging them to stay longer, and explore more experiences while here, we seek to increase visitor spend.

We showcase all that Scotland has to offer year-round, spotlight our lesser-known destinations, and target our market investment at key planning and booking times. This approach supports us in attracting visitors throughout the year and across Scotland, promoting lesser-known destinations. 

Our relationships with the media allow us to really spotlight who we are as a nation, what our values are, and what unique experiences we offer across Scotland.

Visitors use channels like TikTok and YouTube, and tools like AI to help them find and plan their ideal holiday. They may not book at that point, but they’ll have it on their “to-visit list” for when they arrive.

Trends show that short-form content and the increasing popularity of influencer marketing can help us reach audiences on the platforms and channels of their choice. Using trusted sources, we can bring our stories and experiences to life, influencing what visitors book and choose to do. 

We use the power of advocacy by sharing real, powerful, and enriching experiences and stories from Scotland. This includes working with social media influencers or sharing visitor stories. 

We use our own website, email, and social media channels to showcase tourism and event experiences across Scotland to millions of visitors. Our 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.

4. Building relationships with travel intermediaries

More than half of international visitors plan and book their travel through travel intermediaries (tour operators, travel advisors, travel agents, etc.). In fact, they play a significant role for all our visitors at both the planning and booking stages of their holiday.  

We aim to raise Scotland’s profile on the global tourism stage by developing relationships with key intermediaries in target markets. Together, we promote Scotland as a year-round destination. Through this work, we support intermediaries to develop Scotland products, such as experiences, packages or itineraries, that they can take out to market and sell to the consumer.

We support the tourism and events industry to:

• create authentic experiences, that will be of interest to our key travel intermediaries
• help to see their offering be included in travel packages for potential visitors

To do this, we provide business-to-business marketing opportunities, like networking events, to connect the right businesses to the right intermediaries. 

We organise targeted events, including our showcase travel trade event, VisitScotland Connect. Connect brings together Scottish businesses with international buyers looking to expand their offering in Scotland.

We also work with airlines and other transport providers. Good connectivity helps make Scotland a more desirable destination, boosting inbound tourism.

This, in turn, grows the wider visitor economy. It’s vital we continue to make it as easy as possible for international visitors to come to Scotland.