New corporate plan published

Driving Scotland's visitor economy

This month, we have published our new corporate plan, outlining our priorities for 2025-2028. It details how we will drive sustainable growth, help businesses internationalise and build back domestic demand, and enhance Scotland's world-class reputation as a tourism and events destination. 

With a clear purpose - to drive the visitor economy, growing its value to Scotland - our new plan focuses on four key priority areas:

• place development
• market development
• business and experience development 
• organisation development

Creating a thriving visitor economy takes a collective effort. Working across these priority areas with industry, and the public, private and third sectors, we can continue to make Scotland a must-visit, must-return, year-round destination of choice from visitors near and far.

Serving coffee to a guest at Peebles Hydro. Credit: VisitScotland / Connor Mollison

Tourism and events landscape in Scotland

In 2023, visitor spend was worth over £10.8 billion to Scotland’s economy. This is the equivalent to 6% of Scotland’s total economy. The industry also supports 245,000 tourism-related jobs and 16,045 businesses.

Similarly, the 2024 UK Event Report found that the events industry generates £61.653 billion annually for the economy, with £5.5 billion (9%) of that attributed to Scotland. That is equivalent to a further 3% of Scotland’s total economic value. 

This supports a wider visitor economy which is often recognised as the foundation of a thriving and sustainable national economy, supporting Scotland’s people and places. 

Recent growth projections show new tourism-related jobs will grow at nearly double the national growth rate up to 2027, at which time tourism employment will account for one in 8.2 new jobs in Scotland. This employment supports further entrepreneurship, nurtures core workforce skills and creates opportunities for individuals to establish and manage businesses in various sectors such as accommodation, transportation, and food and drink. 

However, the rising cost of living and doing business, as well as increased global competition, are among the barriers facing the industry’s growth, with the weaker domestic market countering strong performance from several key international markets.

Driving growth and supporting Scottish businesses

In the face of these current challenges, our new corporate plan includes:

• a new commitment to stimulate demand for Scotland’s renowned tourism and events offering from both UK and international markets
• an integrated marketing strategy, using data and insights, in key global markets such as North America, Europe, China and the UK, maintaining a minimum marketing return investment of £11 for every £1 spent
• a new business support programme to help businesses and events deliver experiences which adapt and evolve to satisfy the changing demands of future travellers, and meet new investment opportunities 
• a focus on helping businesses to achieve net zero while identifying and capitalising on opportunities to reach new audiences and grow demand from existing domestic and overseas visitors
• a commitment to have the right skills, technology and insight in place to enable all of the work above to happen

Gallus Pedals Tours showing visitors the sights of Glasgow by bike. Credit: VisitScotland / Luigi Di Pasquale