The draft of Scotland’s future tourism strategy has been shared with around 450 industry delegates at the Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) Annual Autumn Conference at the EICC.
Marc Crothall, Chief Executive of the STA and Chair of the Strategy Steering Group and Stephen Leckie, Chair of the STA and the Tourism Leadership Group, the guardians of the current Tourism Strategy revealed the new vision – that Scotland can be the world leader in 21st century tourism and the new mission statement – ‘Together we will grow the value and positively enhance the benefits of tourism across Scotland by delivering the very best for our visitors, our businesses, our people, our communities and our environment’.
This future strategy has been developed together by industry, the Scottish Government and public agencies who share this bold vision. The strategy will be delivered through a joined-up approach spanning all sectors and destinations with new ways of working.
Scotland’s future tourism strategy has been developed around four key priorities – People, Place, Businesses and Experiences, each with a key aim, and set of outcomes.
Announcing the details of the draft strategy, Marc Crothall said;
“The draft of Scotland’s future national tourism strategy has unlike TS2020 been developed through an equal partnership approach with a range of stakeholders from industry, Scottish Government and our public agencies. It is reflective of the changing world we live in, our new mindset and approach to how we live and work and represents a bold step forward in setting our industry on a path to delivering benefits to those who visit us, Scotland’s people, the communities within our destinations, local economies, our wider economy and indeed, all of our sectors.
We tested a draft vision and mission with all those who attended the workshops and focus groups, we listened to the feedback. The majority told us the sentiment was right, but we needed to be bolder, more ambitious and the words of our future vision and mission must reflect that and make clear it is Scotland’s tourism vision.
As a result of what is happening in terms of trends, forecasts and future consumer behaviour, there is a need for our tourism industry, government, public sector and communities to collectively respond, adapt and collaborate to deliver a responsible, sustainable, managed growth for the future. Future success will only be achieved through partnership.
Our mindset as a nation and as a sector is now shifting from attracting volume to delivering greater economic and social benefits for our nation and for our local communities – the people who live and work in all our villages, towns and cities. The people who work in our businesses. The time to change and adapt has come.
Our future national tourism strategy must therefore respond in a different way to address these current and future challenges and maximise the opportunities that we have in our sights in the short, medium and long term.
Our strategy should enrich lives and preserve our places with our industry acting as pioneers for delivering responsible tourism. We need to look to build a 21st Century tourism industry for all – our visitors, our people, our businesses, our communities and our environment.”
