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Listen
Two: Our Ambition
Is 50% revenue growth sustainable?
Our ambition is to keep pace with global trends over the next 10 years - if we do this we will achieve 50% revenue growth (in real terms). It will be vital to achieve that growth sustainably - by this we mean social, economic and environmental sustainability. Tourism growth must not be at the expense of our environment, or our culture and communities. The key to doing that is growing value faster than volume. Volume growth of around 2% a year should not produce sudden capacity problems, especially if some of it happens away from the busiest areas and outside peak periods (a lot of city breaks are in the shoulder months). That means that we don't necessarily need to be creating a lot of additional accommodation or visitor attractions but we will want to consider redeveloping or enhancing our current products. If we are successful in extending our season beyond the peak months, this will benefit our smaller communities which rely on the tourist trade, and if we ensure our industry is as green as possible, we will protect the environment that many of our visitors come to see.
An action plan for the next decade
If, in the market context set out above, Scotland is to achieve its ambition of growing tourism by 50% by 2015, then some key changes need to take place across the industry:
- There needs to be a higher level of awareness of what is happening in the marketplace, of consumer trends, what our competitors have to offer, and how this intelligence can be used as a basis for delivering new and improved products and services to the market.
- Our enduring philosophy must be to exceed our visitors' expectations. We must manage the quality of the overall visitor experience, including the quality of our food and accommodation, the quality of the service that is provided to our visitors, and the quality of the environment. Key to this will be attracting and developing the skills to deliver this quality.
- There needs to be a culture of enterprise and innovation across the industry to drive continual investment in new products and services that build on Scotland's tourism assets and deliver fresh, engaging and distinctive visitor experiences which reflect modern consumer interests; and we need to harness new technology to deliver those products and services effectively.
- Access to and around Scotland will be critical, especially in the context of a market largely dominated by short breaks. Ease of travel must also be balanced, though, with the need to protect the environment which many of our visitors come to see.
- We will need to have an integrated marketing effort bringing the destination marketing activities of VisitScotland and VisitBritain and those of the private sector in line behind a common brand. A key component of this will be effective use of the Internet as an information and sales channel for the industry.
- Finally, our whole approach to tourism development must be sustainable - economically, socially and environmentally. Otherwise, our efforts to grow our industry could result in a significantly underperforming industry by 2015.
The remainder of this document sets out these changes in more detail. Underpinning all of them is the driving ambition to succeed and prosper in one of the world's most competitive business sectors, the ambition to make Scotland one of the world's foremost visitor destinations by 2015. The central themes are business entrepreneurship and innovation, business leadership, and a focus on the customer, with the public sector strongly supporting business and industry bodies to grow the sector.
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