VisitScotland
Corporate plan
VisitScotland’s corporate plan 2025-2028 was published in April. It is a significant milestone in terms of setting out the organisation’s priorities over the next three years and beyond and how it intends to achieve them.
VisitScotland’s strategic change programme to reshape the organisation and better serve Scotland's visitor economy continues.
The strategic review of events will establish a refreshed approach that supports the priorities set out within the National Events Strategy and delivers on VisitScotland's purpose to drive the visitor economy, growing its value to Scotland. Areas identified include:
- taking a more proactive approach to supporting the development of local authority event strategies
- product development linked to VisitScotland’s Business Support programme
- a desire to understand how the political commitment in culture can be leveraged in a wider sense for events across Scotland and across the year
- exploring the need for, and viability of, a capital investment programme
- working with Scottish Government colleagues to look at how we secure major events, how we measure their impact and how we derive maximum legacy from them
Find out more about VisitScotland’s corporate plan.
Visitor levy
Aberdeen City is the only visitor levy consultation that is currently live (as of this meeting date). Argyll and Bute, Highland, and Glasgow have all now closed and are working through the feedback received.
Business Support Programme
VisitScotland welcomes feedback on its developing Business Support Hub, particularly to identify any content which is missing.
Alongside digital support, upcoming learning and development opportunities over the summer, the industry Observer Tours visited Glasgow Mela, Glasgow Summer Sessions, and the Genesis Scottish Open.
A programme of industry engagement workshops and webinars will once again be delivered post-summer from October to March.
In relation to conferences, work is ongoing with programme development for Host City, 2-3 December, in Glasgow and the early planning stages of the National Events Conference which is likely to take place in March 2026.
Browse the Business Support Hub.
EventScotland team
The EventScotland team remain focused on this year’s events and delivering its year-on-year funding programmes for this financial year.
The next round of the National Funding Programme is now live for events, taking place November to March. The closing date for applications is 23 June.
Business Events
Business Events reported a successful attendance at IMEX Frankfurt, where the level of enquiries resulted in it being the highest performing trade show of all time.
Visits to London and IMEX America are to follow along with another nine engagement opportunities, which are currently being actively recruited for.
There is a massive data drive taking place at the moment. The Scottish Associations Survey has just been released. Key findings are:
- record economic impact
- significant rise in delegate attendance
- increasing value per event
- substantial activity in "low-season" months
The Business Events Monitor survey closes on 20 June 2025, with a report to follow in the autumn.
The Business Events Transformation Protocol has been particularly successful over the past two years to support bids from our cities and regions and act as a driver to bring events to Scotland.
Learn about the Scottish Associations Survey findings.
Read about the Business Events Monitor.
Find out more about the Business Events Transformation Protocol.