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Visit Scotland | Alba
Matt Davis

Your Industry Relationship Manager

Business advice and support

Your Industry Relationship Manager (IRM) is part of the wider Destination Development Team. Their key focus is to help tourism businesses capitalise on opportunities for sustainable growth.

Your IRM supports industry to deliver digital excellence, effective distribution and memorable experiences.

Through our regional outreach, the team gathers insights into the local tourism offering. This allows them to develop a better understanding of how to help you develop and grow your business.

They provide tailored support aimed at helping your tourism business:

  • maximise your distribution channels
  • adopt a responsible tourism offering

Key areas where an IRM can provide support

  • Distribution

    Attracting new customers to your tourism business is all about visibility.  Today’s holidaymakers use a wide variety of channels to find and book trips.

    For maximum impact online, your business needs to be discoverable and bookable.

  • Direct bookings

    We understand that direct bookings will continue to be a priority for many tourism businesses. We can support you to achieve direct bookings by ensuring your online visibility .

    IRMs offer digital reviews which provide you with actionable advice.

    We look at online reviews, social media activity, website security, being mobile friendly as well as page speed. These factors all play a part in how, and where, your website appears in search engine results. We'll aim to direct traffic, improve your digital footprint and your online visibility.

    We also work in partnership with Business Gateway to deliver in-depth, practical webinars. To further help with direct website traffic, view our recent webinars recordings.

    You can also sign-up to our newsletter to get updates on upcoming programs.

  • Indirect bookings

    Intermediaries are an important part of your distribution model. Whether that’s working with Online Travel Agents (OTAs) or the travel trade, these intermediaries are far reaching. They can help boost your your sales revenue and profitability. 

    There are different methods and tactics to consider when working with intermediaries. We can guide and help coach what that might look like for your tourism business.

  • Sector specific support

    Some tourism sectors, such as accommodation, are well represented when it comes to being bookable online. This is less often the case in the tourism experiences sector.

    To stay competitive, we can help experience businesses navigate online bookability. Sourcing a booking solution which works for your experience can turn 'lookers' into 'bookers'.

  • Responsible tourism

    Our approach to responsible tourism supports businesses to adopt, adapt and improve.

    It's not just about the steps you can take to reduce carbon emissions. It's also about creating thriving communities and the protection of our natural and cultural heritage. It's about making our experiences inclusive.

    We want to understand your current responsible practices and help you expand these. Providing a fuller more responsible tourism offering can lead you to new markets.

  • Product development

    Within regions, we aim to increase the spread of tourism benefits from a seasonal and geographical perspective.

    Developing new, responsible, bookable product will benefit tourism businesses and increase visitor choice. We can work with you to identify product development potential for certain markets.

Contacts