Visit Scotland | Alba

Getting started

  1. Register and create your account
  2. Operator profile
  3. Add a tour listing
  4. Add your tour
  5. Save, preview and publish your tour listings
  6. Manage your profile and tours - your dashboard
  7. FAQs

 

It is a three-step process to get started with the Tours Management System (TMS):

  1. Register and create your account
  2. Create an operator profile - we will then review and activate this for you
  3. Start adding your tours - the listings that will appear on visitscotland.com

Please note:

  • You can manage your operator profile and tour listings at any time via your dashboard - access this from the tool bar at the top of any page
  • All fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory
  • Messages will appear in red at the top of any page if there are any issues or omissions with the information entered
  • Our Customer Services team are available to help and support you with this system - email the team at [email protected]

1. Register and create your account

Go to the Tours Management System (TMS) registration page and complete the following mandatory fields:

  • Company name
  • Full name
  • Email address - this will also be your username
  • Password - must be at least nine characters long, contain one letter and one number or special character
  • Password confirmation

Please read the terms and conditions on the right-hand side of the screen and tick the boxes to confirm:

  • You are not a robot
  • The information provided is accurate (please note by submitting the form, you are agreeing to the working with visitscotland terms & conditions)

Click the button "register with visitscotland tours".

2. Operator profile

Once you have registered, you can login and complete your operator profile. The information entered in this profile will appear in each of your tour listings on the website once you have created and published the tour.

Create your operator profile

  • Go to the Tours Management System (TMS) login page
  • Select either the button "login and complete your operator profile" from your email, or login on the top right of the page of the TMS
  • Enter your registered email address and password, then click "login"
  • You will land on the operator profile page
  • Complete the following four mandatory fields:
  1. Logo or profile image - min resolution: 240 x 120 pixels / max resolution: 3200 x 2400, maximum file size 10MB JPG or PNG
  2. Company details and address
  3. Web and social links
  4. Contact information - this information is private and for our internal systems only, it will NOT be visible on any of your tour listings on the website
  • Click "submit for review"

Your account will be reviewed by our Customer Services Team. You will receive an email to advise when your account is active and you can then start to add your tour listings.

3. Add a tour listing

Once you have received an email confirming that your account is active, you can start to add your tour listings.

  • Go to the Tours Management System (TMS) login page
  • Enter your registered email address and password
  • Click "login"
  • You will land on your dashboard - this is your central hub to add and manage your listings
  • If you are not already in your dashboard, access it by selecting "dashboard" on from the toolbar on the top right of any page

4. Add your tour

You can add all relevant tours for your business and these will appear as individual listings on visitscotland.com.

  • From your dashboard, click on the button "add a tour"
  • You will land on a "create a new tour page"
  • Don't forget to click the button "save and publish" to make your tour appear on visitscotland.com

This table provides information for completing each section on the tour page:

 

Section

How to

Notes

Header image

  • Select choose file to browse through your images and select the most appropriate one

  • Add description, credit and location to the relevant fields

  • This is the main image on the tour listing

  • Min resolution: 1280 x 720 pix

  • Max resolution: 3200 x 2400 pix

  • JPEG, max file size 20MB

  • Check out WikiHow to learn how to resize your image

  • The description, credit and location will appear in the bottom left corner of your header image

Tour information

  • Add tour name, a short description and a more detailed long description to the relevant fields

  • Format the text and add hyperlinks by highlighting the word you want to hyperlink, click the paperclip icon and add your URL

  • Select relevant tabs to enter the information in different languages if required

  • Descriptions - be sure to include all tour highlights and relevant hyperlinks

  • Languages - English will appear as the default language - the system does not translate any information. This needs to be added by you

Additional tour information

  • Complete all fields and tick boxes as relevant

  • Multiple options can be selected for:

  • Starting points

  • Languages

  • Highlights: attractions and destinations

  • Themes

  • Transport

  • Tour types

  • Length of tour

  • Prices are per person in GBP

  • Price on request can be used for bespoke tours and you can indicate if this includes accommodation

  • Tour URL should link to the specific tour information on your own website

  • Booking URL should link to a booking page on your own website and not your homepage

  • Starting points - this populates one of the search box fields on visitscotland.com, and so it is important to complete this in order to appear in the relevant visitor searches. Most locations are included in the drop-down menu. You can add others to your long description

  • Highlights: attractions and destinations - this populates one of the search box fields on visitscotland.com, and so it is important to complete this in order to appear in the relevant visitor searches. The most popular attractions and destinations are included in the drop-down menu. You can include your full itinerary in your long description

  • Themes - this populates one of the search box fields on visitscotland.com, and so it is important to complete this in order to appear in the relevant visitor searches

  • Expiry date - tour listings will be automatically unpublished after this date - you will need to remember to update this expiry date the following year to publish your tour again

  • Length of tour - select the tour length closest to what you offer. Please note, this populates tour length ranges on visitscotland.com so you will appear in the relevant range

  • Days the tour departs - these are the specific days of the week your tour departs on

Offers

  • Under offers, select add an offer on the right-hand side of the screen

  • Complete all fields as relevant

  • Select relevant tabs to enter a description in different languages

  • Select add an offer again to add more than one offer

  • To remove an offer, select remove at the bottom of the offer box

  • Languages - English will appear as the default language for your description - the system does not translate any information. This needs to be added by you

  • Start and end dates of your offer are mandatory. The offer will be removed after the end date passes

Gallery

  • Under gallery, select add an image on the right-hand side of the screen

  • Select choose file to browse through your images and select the most appropriate one

  • Select add an image again to add more than one image

  • To remove an image, select remove in the top left of the image box

Videos

  • Under videos on the right-hand side of the screen, select add a video

  • Add the video URL to the relevant field

  • Select add a video again to add more than one video

  • To remove a video, select remove to the right of the video URL box

  • Videos need to be added one by one

  • Video URL can only be YouTube videos

5. Save, preview and publish your tour listings

These four options are available to you on your tour page:

  1. Save as draft
  2. Preview
  3. Save and publish
  4. Save and unpublish

1. Save as draft

You can click on the button "save as draft" at the bottom of the page to create a draft tour listing.

Hereafter, you will be taken to your dashboard where a green bar will appear at the top of the page that reads "tour successfully created".

Your tour is now a draft and will remain in your dashboard, but it is not live on visitscotland.com until you press the button "save and publish".

2. Preview

You can preview your draft tour clicking on the yellow button "preview" to see how it will look on visitscotland.com before you publish it.

You can preview a tour in any of these two ways:

  1. At the bottom of the page with your tour, before you press the button "save as draft" or "save and publish"
  2. Go to "saved draft tour" on your dashboard, find the tour you wish to preview, click the blue button "actions" at the right-hand side of the tour listing, and select "preview"

3. Save and publish

Save and publish your tour listing to make it live on visitscotland.com. Listings will be live and visible on the website within 15 minutes.

You can save and publish a tour in any of these three ways:

  1. From the bottom of a new tour page - we highly recommend you preview your tour first
  2. From your dashboard - find the tour you wish to publish, click the blue button "actions" at the right-hand side of the tour listing, and select "publish"
  3. You can also publish expired or unpublished tours from your dashboard

Afterwards, a green bar with the text "tour was successfully updated with status published" will appear at the top of the page. Your dashboard status will change to published.

4. Save and unpublish

Save and unpublish your tour listing so it is no longer live on visitscotland.com. Saved and unpublished tour listings will remain in your dashboard and can be edited or published in the future.

You can save and unpublish a tour in any of these two ways:

  1. From the bottom of your tour page
  2. From your dashboard - find the tour you wish to unpublish, click the blue button "actions" at the right-hand side of the tour listing, and select "unpublish"

Your dashboard status will change to unpublished.

6. Manage your profile and tours - your dashboard

Your dashboard is your central hub to manage your operator profile and tour listings.

If you are not already in your dashboard you can access it by clicking on the button "dashboard" in the toolbar on the top right of any page.

All tours are in your dashboard, whether they are draft, published or unpublished.

This table details how to use your dashboard to manage your profile and listings:

 

Dashboard option

How to

Edit your operator information

  • Click the blue button "edit" in the top right corner of your dashboard page

Add a new tour

View existing tours

  • Under "tours" on your dashboard, you will see the name, description, last updated date and status of all your tour listings

  • Click on the blue button "actions" at the right-hand side of any tour listing to edit, duplicate, publish, unpublish, or preview your tour listing

Find a tour

  • Use the search box function to find specific tours

  • Filter the list by "draft", "published" or "unpublished" tours

Edit a tour

  • You can edit any details of an existing tour at any time

  • In the Tours section find the tour you wish to edit, either click the name of the tour or click the blue button "actions" at the right-hand side of the tour listing and select edit tour

  • Once you have edited your tour you will have four options:

  1. Save as draft

  2. Preview

  3. Save and publish

  4. Save and unpublish

Preview a tour

  • Under "tours" on your dashboard, you will find the tour you wish to preview, click the blue button "actions" at the right-hand side of the tour listing and select either "preview" or "view live tour"

Publish a tour

  • Under "tours" on your dashboard, you can find the tour you wish to publish. Either click on the button with the name of the tour or on the blue button "actions" at the right-hand side of the tour listing and click on "edit tour"

  • At the bottom of the page "edit tour", select "save and publish"

  • We highly recommend you preview your tour before you publish it on visitscotland.com

  • You can also publish expired or unpublished tours

  • Status will change to published and your listing will be live and visible on visitscotland.com within 15 minutes

Duplicate a tour

  • You can duplicate existing tours to save time when creating additional tours with similar information

  • Under "tours" on your dashboard, you can find the tour you wish to edit, click the blue button "actions" at the right-hand side of the tour listing and select duplicate

  • The duplicated tour will appear under "tours" on your dashboard with the same name as the original tour followed by the word "copy"

  • Click on the name of your tour to edit the duplicate tour in order to change the tour name and details as required

  • Duplicated tours will automatically save as a draft tour, whether they were copied from a draft or a published tour

Unpublish a tour

  • You can unpublish existing tours if you wish to remove a tour listing from visitscotland.com

  • Unpublished tours will remain on your dashboard and can be edited or published in the future

  • There are three ways to unpublish a tour:

  1. Click the button "save and unpublish" at the bottom of the tour page - find the tour you wish to unpublish, click into it then click the grey button "save and unpublish" at the bottom of the page

  2. Set an expiry date on your tour listing on the pages "add a tour" or "edit tour" - the listing will automatically be unpublished when the expiry date is reached

  3. Click the blue button "actions" to the right of the relevant tour, select "unpublish" - status will change to unpublished

7. Frequently asked questions

Related links

Getting advice

Up-to-date, practical advice on various topics (such as digital, brown tourist signs and more) as well as a chance to get a face-to-face consultation…

Web booking engines

Find out more on how to offer accommodation bookings on visitscotland.com, through using a web booking engine that is integrated with our website.