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Tourism Leadership Group

TOURISM LEADERSHIP GROUP – REFRESHING THE SCOTTISH TOURISM STRATEGY

The TLG is driving the development of a refreshed strategy for Scottish tourism. The new strategy will be in place by June 2012. It will be led by industry, supported by the public sector and based on an in-depth understanding of market opportunities matched to Scotland’s capabilities. It will provide a common agenda for the industry and supporting organisations, focused on our long term growth ambition.

We will provide updates on the development of the refreshed strategy through this website and will issue bulletins through the STF, trade associations and local tourism groups.

We want to hear from people across the whole industry. We are holding a number of events between now and June 2012, initially on the research and evidence base and then on the draft strategy itself.  There will be some national and some local events, and we will be working with the main trade bodies and local tourism groups. Please keep a look out for opportunities to have your say.

At this stage, we are particularly interested in the following questions:

• What will be the biggest market opportunities over the next five years and why?
• How well placed is Scotland to respond to them?

If you have views – and better still specific evidence – on these, please email us at tom.davy@scotland.gsi.gov.uk 

More Information

• Plans and Progress 
• Stage 1 findings 
• Who are the TLG? 
• Why refresh the strategy now?

PLANS AND PROGRESS

The refresh is being taken forward in stages – see process diagram. We are currently working on Stage 2.

Stage 1 – Completed in May 2011. A broad analysis of the industry, with contributions from a wide range of businesses.  Findings published here will be built on in......

Stage 2 – Under way and due to conclude in February 2012. Doing more in-depth specific research focusing on trends and markets (reviewing global market and industry trends to identify and as far as possible quantify the best opportunities for Scotland), Scottish industry analysis (identifying the key capabilities and constraints for Scotland’s tourism industry which would support or hinder our ability to exploit the opportunities identified through trends and markets analysis) and comparator analysis (identifying best practice from elsewhere that could help Scotland exploit growth market opportunities). Will publish findings that will be used for......

Stage 3 – February to March 2012.  Develop focus for the strategy, based on the above research. Will establish a headline target and other key performance indicators. Will publish a draft strategy model as a basis for......

Stage 4 – March to June 2012. Wider challenge and build. Testing the model with stakeholders, building commitment and identifying priorities for action, which will be incorporated in the......

Refreshed strategy – June 2012. Will include a vision, headline target and other KPIs, quantified market opportunities matched to Scotland’s capabilities, and priorities for action.

STAGE 1 FINDINGS

In May 2011, the TLG completed Stage 1 – a broad analysis of the industry, with contributions from a wide range of business.

This identified six early priorities for action, which are being taken forward in parallel with the strategy development:

• Developing markets
• Maximising quality and value
• Enhancing and improving visitor facilities
• Responding to internal and external changes
• Providing industry leadership and strategic direction
• Calling for infrastructure improvements

It also provided information and analysis which will inform the refreshed strategy:

Growing the industry is challenging. Scotland is a mature destination, operating in established markets. Visitor numbers are unlikely to increase very rapidly, so significant efforts and new solutions are needed to stimulate a growth in value.

There are opportunities, both in existing markets:

• potential for growth in English & Scottish short break markets (eg 29% of England residents have yet to experience a leisure visit to Scotland but say they’d like to)
• potential for adding value in established markets overseas focusing on golf, culture, heritage and business tourism.

and in emerging international markets over the medium to longer-term, such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and Eastern Europe.

Scotland has strong tourism capabilities which can be used to exploit these opportunities, including:

• natural & built assets – quality of the landscape, natural & built heritage, city & rural, culture, safe place
• activities – range of things to do (both outdoors & city)
• distinctiveness of the destination
• our people

However it also has a number of constraints, particularly around value for money, inconsistent quality (of experience, accommodation, food & drink, service and retail offering), transport, skills investment, industry leadership, investment finance and culture of dependency on the public sector.

More detailed information about the Stage 1 findings is provided in the following documents  

• TLG Stage 1 -  Summary (2 Page) June 2011 
• TLG Stage 1 - Summary (6 Page) June 2011 
• TLG Stage 1 - Findings report June 2011
• TLG Stage 1 - Consultants' full report

WHO ARE THE TLG?

The TLG was established by the Scottish Tourism Forum, on behalf of the wider industry and with support from the Scottish Government and its agencies. The Group comprises:

The strategy refresh is overseen by a Steering Group drawn from the TGL comprising Stephen Leckie, Bob Downie, Russell Imrie, Willie Macleod, Alan Ranklin and Robin Worsnop.

The TLG is supported by:

• Eddie Brogan from Scottish Enterprise
• Riddell Graham from VisitScotland
• Chris Taylor from Highland and Island Enterprise
• The Tourism Strategy Project Team (Susan Beattie from Scottish Enterprise and Tom Davy from the Scottish Government)

And other colleagues from Scottish Enterprise, HIE, VisitScotland and the Scottish Government

WHY REFRESH THE STRATEGY NOW?

The previous tourism strategy, the Tourism Framework for Change (TFFC), was written in 2005 and launched in 2006. It set out a range of targets and an overall ambition to grow Scottish tourism revenues by 50% by 2015.

Individual targets have been delivered and there has been substantial progress on the ground by the industry and the public sector. This has included investment in hotels, golf courses, museums and galleries and activity infrastructure, the development of new industry collaborations at a local and a sector level, the Year of Homecoming and wider events programmes, and strengthened business support such as through Tourism Intelligence Scotland.

Nevertheless, it is now recognised that we aren’t on track to achieve the 50% growth ambition. The 50% figure was agreed in a more optimistic economic climate. There have also been concerns that the TFFC targets weren’t adequate to deliver this scale of growth and that the Monitoring and Implementation groups set up to oversee delivery of the strategy weren’t effective in engaging the wider industry.

It was against this backdrop that the Scottish Tourism Forum, on behalf of the wider industry and with support from the Scottish Government and its agencies, set up the Tourism Leadership Group. The key task for the TLG, initially at least, was to review the TFFC and bring forward a fresh strategy for the future development of the industry.