Scottish tourism plans transformational path to post-COVID recovery

Vis­itScot­land chief Mal­colm Roughead shares how his organ­isa­tion has worked with host com­munit­ies and oth­er tour­ism stake­hold­ers to plot a respons­ible and sus­tain­able route out of the COVID crisis. Enjoy this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. 

Scot­tish tour­ism, like the sec­tor world­wide, is in a pre­cari­ous state. The coronavir­us pan­dem­ic and its ongo­ing effects are chal­len­ging the industry in unpre­ced­en­ted ways. Adapt­a­tion has become the norm, as the sec­tor looks to main­tain busi­ness and retain its consumers.

As the effects of the pan­dem­ic took hold in March, the Scot­tish Tour­ism Emer­gency Response Group met to cre­ate a plan to help tour­ism busi­nesses recov­er from this crisis. It became clear early on, as the vir­us swept the globe, that recov­ery would take time. Many busi­nesses would require sig­ni­fic­ant sup­port, not least fin­an­cial, as we nav­ig­ated the new nor­mal. We also recog­nised the oppor­tun­ity to reset tour­ism and shape its respons­ible and sus­tain­able recov­ery in a way that was aligned with the nation­al tour­ism strategy, Scot­land Out­look 2030.

Pri­or to 2020, Scot­land thrived as a vis­it­or des­tin­a­tion. That pop­ular­ity, inev­it­ably, came with con­sequences, which at times put a strain on some com­munit­ies, infra­struc­ture, and the envir­on­ment. The Scot­tish gov­ern­ment cre­ated the Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund to deal with chal­lenges faced in those hot­spot areas.

Col­lab­or­at­ive part­ner­ships are at the heart of what we do at Vis­itScot­land. Across the coun­try, events like our ‘Tea and Tour­ism’ pro­gram pull togeth­er rep­res­ent­at­ives from loc­al author­it­ies, DMOs, indi­vidu­al busi­nesses, and sec­tor rep­res­ent­at­ives to dis­cuss loc­al issues and opportunities.

Responsible & reassuring recovery

Now, as we look to the future post-COV­ID there is recog­ni­tion that a respons­ible, reas­sur­ing, and phased approach to recov­ery is required for the bene­fit of the industry, com­munit­ies, and visitors. 

Build­ing on exist­ing stake­hold­er net­works and rela­tion­ships, Vis­itScot­land has under­taken, through its Region­al Lead­er­ship and Devel­op­ment team, a pro­gram of round table dis­cus­sions. These began as we approached the reopen­ing of tour­ism in July. 

The round table ses­sions primar­ily focussed on areas where there was com­munity con­cern around the rein­tro­duc­tion of vis­it­ors. The ses­sions facil­it­ated dis­cus­sions with host com­munit­ies and key part­ners. We were able to listen to their con­cerns, share our plans and activ­it­ies, and reas­sure them that a phased and respons­ible approach to recov­ery was being adop­ted. Shar­ing inform­a­tion about avail­able guid­ance and sup­port, con­sumer insights, and our plans for mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion were key. 

The res­ults of those dis­cus­sions res­ul­ted in a bespoke approach to our mar­ket­ing, tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion the dif­fer­ing effects of the vir­us at a region­al level across Scotland. 

We also cre­ated a vis­it­or charter to encour­age vis­it­ors to act respons­ibly and take into con­sid­er­a­tion the impact of their beha­viour on res­id­ents. We col­lab­or­ated with industry part­ners and influ­en­cers to tar­get those who needed encour­age­ment to treat our stun­ning coun­tryside respectfully. 

Transformational travel & tourism

There were already signs of beha­viour change before the pan­dem­ic. In Feb­ru­ary we iden­ti­fied grow­ing con­sumer demand for ‘trans­form­a­tion­al tour­ism’ in our Trends 2020 paper, and acknow­ledged it again in our most recent paper, Nav­ig­at­ing the New Nor­mal, in September.

We believe slow tour­ism will increase in pop­ular­ity in the short term. There will be less travel but bet­ter travel. Per­son­al­isa­tion will drive innov­a­tion as more con­sumers “travel with pur­pose”. They will want to wit­ness, sup­port, and exper­i­ence rewild­ing, loc­al­ism, res­tor­at­ive immer­sion, among oth­er spir­it-lift­ing activ­it­ies and trends. 

Respons­ible tour­ism is not just about chan­ging vis­it­or beha­viour. It is also about ensur­ing that vis­it­ors and com­munit­ies can live in har­mony with enough resources for both. In turn, this will attract those con­sumers who seek ful­filling exper­i­ences and drive them to all regions of Scotland.

We know there’s renewed con­cern as the spread of the vir­us increases once more. This vir­us is ever-chan­ging. We must be adapt­able and con­sid­er­ate while nav­ig­at­ing through the crisis in col­lab­or­a­tion with our partners.

This is where industry can play its part, by main­tain­ing an open dia­logue with com­munit­ies. For our part, we will con­tin­ue our jour­ney to becom­ing a lead­ing respons­ible tour­ism des­tin­a­tion as the road to recov­ery continues.

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): The Loup of Fintry. Image: VisitScotland.

Downloads

• Nav­ig­at­ing the New Nor­mal — Post-COV­ID19 Tour­ism Con­sumer Trends (PDF hos­ted off-site), Vis­itScot­land, Septem­ber 2020
• Trends 2020: Trav­el­ling towards trans­form­a­tion­al tour­ism (PDF hos­ted off-site), Vis­itScot­land, Feb­ru­ary 2020

About the author

Mal­colm Roughead was appoin­ted Vis­itScot­land’s chief exec­ut­ive in 2010, hav­ing been dir­ect­or of mar­ket­ing since join­ing the nation­al tour­ism organ­isa­tion in 2001. Under his lead­er­ship, Vis­itScot­land has expan­ded its digit­al pres­ence and developed the glob­al mar­ket­ing cam­paigns “Spir­it of Scot­land” and “Scot­land is Now”.

Pri­or to Vis­itScot­land, Mal­colm held a range of inter­na­tion­al and UK-based mar­ket­ing roles with com­pan­ies such as Diageo, Guin­ness World Records, Guin­ness in Africa, Nestlé, and Beechams. In 2005 he received an OBE (Order of the Brit­ish Empire) for his ser­vices to tour­ism. He is also a Fel­low of the Insti­tute of Dir­ect Mar­ket­ing and a Fel­low and former chair of the Mar­ket­ing Soci­ety in Scotland.