Industry and Events Directorate

This directorate supports destinations, sectors and businesses to help develop a strong and dynamic tourism and events industry for Scotland.

This directorate has a strong focus on collaboration and partnership working, developing and maintaining strategic relationships with a wide range of partners.

Its main aim is to ensure that tourism and events is seen as an important and valuable industry for Scotland. It harnesses the power of partnerships, collaborating locally, nationally, and globally with a range of partners and stakeholders. These include:

tourism businesses
Scottish events sector
industry and sector bodies
destination management organisations and communities
local authorities
enterprise agencies
UK and international partners

The team leads the delivery of our role in national tourism and events strategies – Scotland Outlook 2030 and Scotland the Perfect Stage 2024-2035.

Director of Industry and Events – Rob Dickson

Rob Dickson is a highly experienced individual who joined VisitScotland in 2021 from Scottish Borders Council where he was most recently Executive Director (Corporate Improvement & Economy). Before that, he worked for the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames.

He was pivotal in setting up the South of Scotland Enterprise agency. He led on economic development in the Scottish Borders and has worked closely with stakeholders and public agencies across tourism and events.

Rob is a former international rugby referee and carried out military service for three years with The Royal Scots.

Destination Development

This team is led by Ken Massie and is focused on:

VisitScotland’s contribution to the development of regional and destination strategies
identifying regional priorities, and opportunities with a focus on key outcomes, data and insights to inform our work
championing tourism and events as part of the Regional Economic Partnership (REP) structures across the country
supporting the development of transformational national and regional investments
informing spending and planning on investment in infrastructure to realise maximum tourism impacts, including delivery of the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund (RTIF)
engagement with relevant national initiatives and policy outcomes
an enquiry and support service for industry

EventScotland

Rebecca Edser leads the EventScotland team. Its primary focus is to build on Scotland’s credentials as a leading events destination. As part of this, they:

bid for and develop a strong sporting and cultural events portfolio with the help of direct investment and other support
devise and put in place strategies and plans to meet the overall goals of VisitScotland
maximise and measure the impact of events in Scotland
build strong relationships and work with partners to bid for and secure major sporting, cultural, and business events
manage investments via funding programmes to support public-facing events staged in Scotland

Discover funding opportunities for events on support.visitscotland.org.

Through our partnership working, Scotland has hosted some of the world’s biggest events, including:

2023 UCI Cycling World Championships
2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships
The Open Championships
COP26
UEFA EURO 2020
The 2019 Solheim Cup
2018 European Championships
The 2014 Ryder Cup
2014 Commonwealth Games
MTV EMAs 2014

Find out more about the sporting and cultural events that EventScotland supports.

Visit our supported events page.

Contact our events team.

Industry Engagement

Marie Christie leads the Industry Engagement team. The team delivers a range of activities to support the tourism and events industry. These include:

providing leadership, prioritisation and coordination for all our sector-based work
building strong relationships with key sector groups and a clear understanding of national sector strategies
developing sector plans and inputs as part of regional plans
delivering improved resources, support and knowledge sharing through new business support model (digital and one-to-many)
creation and delivery of excellent, responsible events such as VisitScotland Connect, The Scottish Thistle Awards Programme and Golf Programme
delivering event-based industry engagement and development opportunities

Read Scotland's national events strategy.