Advancing our marketing strategy for Scotland

By Vicki Miller, Director of Marketing & Digital at VisitScotland.

It’s hard to believe that 2024 marks 55 years since the creation of VisitScotland.

If you were to look back at our marketing activity in 1969, I suspect you’d be shocked at how few options we had to showcase Scotland to the world. Back then brochures, leaflets and the occasional TV advert were the most powerful tools in our arsenal.

With the dawn of the digital era, the rise of social media and most recently, developments in AI (Artificial Intelligence) we have a wealth of new ways to reach potential visitors and tell Scotland’s stories.

However, while it’s great to have exciting and innovative new ways to share Scotland with the world, all these new communications channels have widened the “sphere of influence,” and the reality is we must be smarter and work harder to ensure we are being seen and heard.

As an organisation we must stay alert to changes in consumer behaviour and one of the biggest shifts we’ve seen in recent decades is the way people access their travel information.

We know that visitors are inspired by the travel content they see in their social media feeds and read online and that even before they set foot on Scottish soil, the vast majority have already planned their holiday and booked their accommodation and activities.

With that in mind our most influential window of opportunity has become pre-arrival information. Reaching visitors at those early planning stages means we can inspire what time of year they come, where they go and what they do. Ultimately influencing how long they stay and what they spend.

If we want to continue building demand for Scotland, supporting the growth of our tourism and events industry and position ourselves as a must-visit, 365-day a year destination then it’s vitally important that we are sending the right messages, to the right people, at the right time, using the channels we know they use.

This means creating and curating inspirational content for our owned and earned digital channels to reach audiences at those early planning stages when we can impact future travel decisions.

So, whether that’s working with an influencer, tapping into TikTok trends, partnering with like-minded organisations, or pitching Scotland’s strengths to the world’s media; all these tactics help us put Scotland front of mind.

What’s really encouraging is that we’re seeing results and growing demand for Scotland. The recent International Passenger Survey (IPS) results show Scotland continues to post the strongest international recovery compared to other UK nations and the forward look in terms of demand from international markets looks strong for 2024.

In the past couple of months alone, Scotland and various Scottish destinations have also been named in several must-visit 2024 travel lists including Nat Geo, Rough Guides and Lonely Planet. These accolades bring further opportunities to promote Scotland to new audiences and show how highly-regarded Scotland’s unique and distinct offering is.

We capitalise on this interest through our marketing activity, working with influential partners such as Le Figero, Skyscanner and Culture Trip to generate interest in Scotland. Just last month we launched a new storytelling and media collaboration with National Geographic Creative Works targeting US and UK visitors.

And of course, we continue to work closely with Destination Management Organisations and local authorities to encourage regional spread and attract higher value visits.

We’ve published a series of news articles on our corporate website VisitScotland.org (https://www.visitscotland.org/news) that gives you a flavour of just some of the activity we’ve been doing over the winter months to support the industry and attract visitors. It also looks at what is planned for the coming months.

Our marketing strategy is designed not just to drive demand for Scotland, it also supports our responsible tourism ambitions, increasing the value of every visit, stimulating regional and seasonal spread and encouraging our visitors to make sustainable choices before they travel.

With this approach we have the world at our fingertips and I look forward to advancing our information journey with visitors. But while the way we inspire visitors may change, our purpose remains the same to stimulate new and sustainable growth in the visitor economy, creating jobs, attracting investment, and sustaining communities right across the country.