The tourism landscape has changed dramatically over recent years.

Value for money has become increasingly important as household budgets come under pressure, and visitors are seeking more high quality, authentic and ‘meaningful’ holiday experiences.

But as the landscape changes, new opportunities emerge and by making the most of them, you can inspire visitors to spend more, stay longer, come back more often, and recommend you to others.

Inspire visitors to spend more, stay longer, come back more often, and recommend you to others. Watch our video to find out what???s changed in the global tourism environment.

Visitors to Scotland come from all over the world, but the Tourism Scotland 2020 strategy focuses on a small group of countries which are particularly important to Scottish tourism and are likely to remain so in the future. If we can use market intelligence to understand what these visitors want while they are visiting Scotland we can provide them with a first class experience.

Our growth markets

Home Turf

England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The main market for Scotland continues to be the UK, as it offers year-round overnight and day visit tourism.

Near Neighbours

Scandinavia, Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Italy.
Geographic proximity and good transport links mean Scotland is likely to remain a destination of choice for our EU neighbours.

Distant Cousins

USA, Australia, Canada.
Scotland has always been a popular choice for visitors from these countries due to strong historic and family links.

Emerging Markets

India, China, Russia, Brazil.
Relatively small in number at the moment, these emerging markets are set to grow. By finding out more about them now, you’ll be well placed to capitalise on the opportunities when they come.

Market intelligence is vital if your business is to deliver what visitors actually want.

How much do you know about your visitors?

Do you know who the visitors to your business are and what they???re looking for?

The more market intelligence you have about them, the easier it will be to identify how you could improve their experience by creating products and services that delight them. If they go away satisfied they???re more likely to come back again and recommend you to others, cutting your marketing costs.

Good market intelligence will also help you to identify others in your local area with whom you could work to offer a more rounded experience for your visitors.

The TIS ???Knowing our markets ??? Scotland???s visitors??? guide provides up to date market information and highlights how you can meets the needs of these visitors.

These are some of the key questions to ask yourself:

What types of visitors do you attract?
Where are they coming from?
How do they find out about you?
What are they interested in?
What else are they asking for?
How do they rate their overall experience?
How could you make their experience better?

Gathering Information

The best way of gathering this information is to compile your own simple visitor survey. The TIS ???Listening to our visitors??? guide will provide you with hints and tips on doing this. It may also be worth finding out if any local visitor surveys have been undertaken recently in your area, which can provide you with a broader picture of your visitors and their behaviour.

Tripadvisor

Review sites like TripAdvisor can also be a fantastic source of feedback and information to help you develop your business. Check out TIS ???Shine Online??? guide for more information and tips on how to make the most of social media in your business.

Once you have market information at your fingertips, you can use this knowledge to develop new products, services or campaigns that will be attractive and relevant to potential visitors.

Making the most of the market opportunities - As previously mentioned, Tourism Scotland 2020 identifies four key strengths which experts believe offer the greatest market opportunities for Scotland:

Heritage, nature and activities
Business tourism
Destination towns and cities
Events and festivals

To make the most of these, we need to look at building visitor experiences around them. This can often be best achieved by working in partnership with businesses that have products and services complementary to our own. Through collaboration we can offer visitors more joined-up information, easier access to a wider range of high quality products, services and packages, and a higher level of customer service. All these elements add up to satisfied customers.

Understand your markets and visitors