Date :
26/03/2013
A series of regional events over the next few months will culminate in the first-ever Scottish Destinations Convention in the autumn.
The new networking event forms part of plans to boost the nation’s tourism destinations – whether they be towns, cities, islands or rural areas.
Alan Rankin, Chief Executive of the Cairngorms Business Partnership, is leading this strand of Tourism Scotland 2020.
His message to the Scottish Tourism Week signature conference was clear: every destination, whatever its size, can use collaboration to improve visitor experience and drive more spend into local businesses.
“Every business engaged in tourism should get involved with their local destination group if they aren’t already,” he declared.
“Proactive and energetic destinations will become more and more of a feature in marketing campaigns, product development and investment plans – so being part of your local group has to be good for business.”
The destinations group is committed to developing a new Framework for Destinations and refreshing the excellent Destination Development toolkit which can support destinations to work on product development, market research, advocacy and resources.
Destinations will also be encouraged to pair up or cluster around themes, such as whisky or golf.
“The customer does not recognise boundaries – especially administrative ones – and many choose to travel around our country as part of an activity-based holiday package,” Alan explained.
A 'customer journey checker' will be developed this year to help businesses to work together to improve the quality of the whole visitor experience.
Key agencies – including the Scottish Government, VisitScotland, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise – will work with the Scottish Tourism Alliance to set out a fresh approach to supporting destinations across Scotland to support the strategy's growth ambition.