Visit Scotland | Alba

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Helping businesses to thrive

Our vision is to develop our tourism and events industries to ensure Scotland is a sustainable, responsible destination. At the heart of a thriving, dynamic visitor economy are businesses delivering experiences which adapt and evolve to satisfy the changing demands of the future traveller. 

Success depends on an evolving portfolio of product and events, which simultaneously deliver benefit to communities across Scotland and underpins the destination’s credentials among the global travel and events community.

Our activity is helping businesses to tap into changing travel trends, capitalise on local investment projects and sector strengths and adapt their offer to reach new audiences and markets with the experience we know visitors want.

In this article:

Importance of tourism and events

1 in 11 businesses

in Scotland are in tourism (15,500; +12% since 2016)

1 in 11 jobs

in Scotland are in tourism (229,000; +11% since 2016)

£5.5 billion

estimated worth of Scottish events sector in direct spend

Sources: Scottish Government Growth Sector Statistics 2024, NEI (Net Economic Impact) for the financial year 2023/24 and Colliers, 2024, National Events Strategy

We’ve been reviewing our approach to business support and advice to ensure it meets business needs and reflects the ever-changing competitive environment. We’re steadfast in our support of tourism and events and are focused on the key areas where we can make the biggest impact.

Developing visitor experiences, distribution, discoverability, and responding to visitor trends play a key role in delivering growth for the visitor economy. We specialise in these areas of advice. We provide tailored, free to access advice and support that helps businesses to:

  • tap into changing travel trends
  • capitalise on local investment projects and sector strengths
  • adapt their offer to reach new audiences and markets
  • grow their business and deliver quality, memorable experiences

1. Business support programme

VisitScotland has a unique role to play in providing specialist support to tourism and events businesses.

Our business support programme takes a digital-first approach to providing tourism and event businesses with valuable insights and advice. This focus will help us ensure that Scotland continues to deliver high-quality, unique experiences across all sectors of the visitor economy.

Through a year-round programme of free support, we’ll reach more businesses, helping them to grow and keep up to date with the latest consumer, market and sector insight. The programme includes digital advice, webinars and workshops, networking and peer-to-peer learning, and a Business Enquiries Team.

 

We’re building our team of subject matter and sector experts and developing tailored advice which will help businesses adapt, innovate and improve their practices in areas like sustainability, inclusion, travel distribution and travel trade (for example tour operators or travel agents).

We’re also working closely with destinations and sectors across Scotland, as well as our public sector partners. By coordinating our efforts with them, we can ensure that we offer support that will drive business development and economic growth. 

Ultimately, our business support programme uses our resources to help more businesses across Scotland to capitalise on the growing demand for our world-class offering and allows us to promote Scotland as a year-round destination.

Our year-round programme includes:

  • Business Support Hub

    Tailored digital advice and support on a range of topics, provided via a new website - the Business Support Hub.

  • Webinars and workshops 

    A programme of webinars and workshops, both online and in-person to help businesses grow, reach new audiences and markets.  

  • Networking and learning

    Networking and peer-to-peer learning opportunities so you can share actionable industry and market insight.

  • Marketing

    Marketing advice and opportunities to help make tourism and events products easy to find and book.

  • Responsible practices 

    Advice on responsible practices that help to drive the adoption of inclusive and climate action planning.

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2. Business development and intermediary marketing

We help businesses to internationalise and reach new customers at home and abroad. We play a key role in connecting tourism products and experiences with distribution channels used by our target visitors.

Our focus is on:

  • enhancing business competitiveness and growth
  • tourism product and experience development 
  • trade readiness
  • bookability
  • channel choice and development 
  • sustainable and inclusive growth
  • net zero development 
  • inclusive tourism development

 

 

We want to ensure that businesses are prepared and able to internationalise, making the most of opportunities and trends in order to develop and grow. 

To do this, we equip businesses with the skills and knowledge to grow, internationalise, and deliver world-class visitor and event experiences, while remaining competitive in the face of industry challenges.

This strengthens Scotland’s reputation as a leading tourism and event destination.  

More than half of international visitors plan and book their travel through an intermediary of some type.

Our work with travel intermediaries allows us to provide data and insight to help businesses create products that we know visitors want.

This supports businesses to understand and grasp the opportunities presented by the range of direct and intermediary channels. 

  • Direct channels

    Make a reservation or purchase a service directly with a provider, without a third party through email, telephone or online 

  • Intermediary channels

    Visitors book via tour operators or online travel agents such as Booking.com or Expedia, or travel aggregators (online platforms that allow users to search for and compare travel options) 

Through the use of data and innovative partnerships, we support businesses to respond to the climate emergency and take action to meet our net zero ambitions.

Our approach to responsible tourism supports businesses to adopt, adapt, and improve. It's not just about the steps businesses can take to reduce carbon emissions or providing accessibility information. It's also about creating thriving communities and the protection of our natural and cultural heritage. And it's about making our experiences inclusive. Creating better places for people to live and visit. 

Learn about travel distribution and how it can help businesses to grow

3. Business Support Hub

A key part of our business support programme is the delivery of a new online Business Support Hub. The website is a central resource hub for the tourism and events industry with valuable, actionable insights in a user-friendly structure.

It’s packed with tailored tourism and events advice and support. It hosts tools and resources to help businesses, with steps to start, improve and grow your tourism or events business in a sustainable way.

Explore the Business Support Hub website

What to expect

  • Practical advice to help you improve and grow

    • insightful articles on topics like online booking, marketing, delivering a quality experience, key legislation, sustainability and responsible practices
    • newly developed, practical content on pricing strategies, reaching new markets and measuring your progress, with lots more to come
    • case studies to inspire you with real-world examples of Scottish tourism and event business success and lessons learned
    • a brand-new video series for those new to selling their products with a travel distribution partner such as a tour operator or online travel agent

  • Resources and templates

    • valuable templates are available for some key topics, including a climate action workbook and an online booking needs assessment, to save you time and effort
    • useful links to partner advice and resources that can help you create things like accessibility guides, business plans and strategies

  • Training and development opportunities

    • find webinars and workshops to improve your business skills and hear from experts
    • browse industry events that take place across the country, where you can gain valuable insights and network with others in your sector or region
    • engage with and sell your business via travel distribution partners through our travel trade events listings

  • Keep in touch with the latest advice

    • sign up for the Business Support monthly newsletter to get the latest advice and tips straight to your inbox to help you start, improve or grow your business
    • need to talk to someone? Drop our Business Enquiry Team a question via our simple contact form and we’ll come right back to you
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4. Tourism and event sector support

We work with tourism sector groups to facilitate growth and development in line with national strategic priorities. We look to understand the potential capability and capacities across Scotland’s sector groups. This allows us to: 

  • understand where Scotland's product strengths are located and potential opportunities for growth 

  • identify where our interventions should be targeted in order to add greatest value  

Together, we can build capacity, help the tourism industry attract high spend visitors, and create high satisfaction across our industry, locals, and visitors.   

We also support the events sector to deliver against the national events strategy, Scotland the Perfect Stage 2024-2035. Delivery of the strategy’s vision is centred on three critical interconnecting focus areas. These are developing events, developing the industry, and developing Scotland.  

It’s our role to encourage and support the events industry to get engaged with the implementation of the strategy. We do this by providing funding opportunities, guidance, access to resources and insight, along with other support. 

Find out more about Scotland's National Events Strategy 2024-2035

Related links

Market development

Attracting inbound leisure, business and corporate travel through a mix of strategic marketing, intermediary, partner and media relations activities.

Place and destination development

Supporting regional economic strategies and developing destinations by leveraging public and private sector investment opportunities across tourism…