Expert's Opinion: Ken Massie of Visit Scotland on driving the business to a destination

A strong cooperation between tourism boards and hospitality can amplify the appeal of a destination, enhancing visitor experiences and driving economic growth. By working together, they can create cohesive marketing strategies, streamline information dissemination, and offer integrated services that cater to tourists' needs. 

Today, we asked Ken Massie, Head of Industry Development of VisitScotland to share his approach to involving both sides of the travel industry to drive the business.

Photo credits: Visit Falkirk

HC: How can tourism boards and hotels collaborate together in order to successfully promote a destination and achieve results beneficial for both industries?

KM: VisitScotland has a clear core purpose - to drive the visitor economy, growing its value in Scotland. Partnership working is at the heart of all that we do, this includes collaborating with colleagues in the hotel sector to make Scotland a destination of choice for visitors from near and far. 

We work with hospitality bodies, hotel associations and hotel groups. Partnership marketing is a crucial part of our wider marketing strategy to position Scotland as a year-round destination, encouraging seasonal and regional spread.

A good example of this is our media partnership campaign with Hilton hotels, to promote winter breaks in Scotland's cities. With a focus on showcasing timely, authentic moments that could only be experienced by staying overnight in each city during the winter months, the campaign resonated with consumers and delivered strong results for both partners. 

We also support businesses to internationalise, helping them to reach new visitor audiences in new markets. We have an established annual programme of travel trade events where we work closely with tour operators and Scottish trade-ready businesses, including our flagship travel trade event, VisitScotland Connect.

Feedback from hotel groups shows that attending our trade events and working with our Intermediary team has a positive impact. And collaboration makes economic sense; it allows us to extend our reach and help bring our visitor offering to a wider range of audiences.

Hero image credits: VisitScotland / Kenny Lam