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This directorate plays a key role in delivering our responsible tourism ambition. It has a strategic focus on inclusive and sustainable growth.

Using insight into how consumers search and use information when planning and booking travel, we create and curate engaging and inspiring content which brings to life the people and places behind Scotland’s world-renowned offering. We ensure that Scotland is discoverable in key markets by targeting the channels visitors are using for travel inspiration, planning, and booking to drive the visitor economy.

As a globally recognised business events destination, the directorate also capitalises on travel trends around combining business with leisure travel and the growth of remote overseas working – “bleisure” and “flexcations”.

Key priorities include:

  • regional and seasonal visitor spread, resulting in a positive impact in communities and destinations across Scotland
  • working collaboratively with industry stakeholders
  • inspiring and influencing visitors to make responsible choices
  • ensuring diversity and inclusion across all our platforms and activities
  • promoting and protecting our natural and cultural heritage of Scotland and the protection of it for future generations
  • supporting businesses to reach international markets by providing more of the right products and experiences bookable in market through their channels of choice
  • attract international business events and business travellers

In this article:

Director of Marketing and Digital - Jill Walker

With a career spanning both the public and private sector, Jill has a wealth of experience in marketing and digital strategy and joined VisitScotland in October 2024.

Jill was most recently Head of Marketing at the Scottish Government, where she was responsible for the direction and delivery of Scotland's most high profile and cutting-edge marketing and digital strategies to support Scottish Government policy.

Prior to joining the Scottish Government, Jill worked within leading advertising agencies in Scotland and London and set up her own marketing agency, Family in 2009.

Business Development and Intermediary Marketing

Led by Head of Department Denise Hill, this department focuses on ensuring that demand for Scotland is converted into actual visits. It makes sure visitors are able to find the products and experiences they are looking for via the booking channels they prefer and trust.

The team is focused on:

  • growing Scotland’s share of the global travel market by understanding the needs of consumers so that businesses can develop products to meet future demand
  • working with sector and destination partners, deliver a programme of tailored product and place-focused support, including webinars, workshops, platform and channel introductions
  • providing one-to-many, free to access support and advice, including specialist inclusive and net zero support
  • partnership working with travel intermediaries and businesses to drive forward the decarbonisation of the supply chain
  • helping Scottish tourism businesses to be travel trade ready and to internationalise
  • partnership work with airlines and ferry partners to ensure access is maintained and capacity further developed to support growth from current and future markets

Business Events

Head of Department Neil Brownlee leads the business events team. The team's aim is to drive Scotland’s economic and social progress through business events. These include conventions, corporate meetings, incentive groups and product launches.

The focus of the team is to:

  • secure business events for Scotland from around the world, notably from North America, Germany, France, Spain and the rest of the UK
  • help attract business events which are related to Scotland’s key growth sectors, which include life sciences, fintech, digital, energy and food and drink
  • work in partnership with the city convention bureaus of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen
  • work with key venues, hotels and academic centres of excellence

Creative Studio

Our Senior Manager Creative Studios Madeleine Macaulay-Stuart oversees the Creative Studio which leads and supports the development of creative assets and systems in collaboration with teams across the organisation.

The team champion Scotland’s destination brand, ensuring that all creative communication, content, campaign, and digital outputs are aligned to the brand's values, essence, and attributes. The Creative Studio has expertise across:

  • Brand design and governance
  • Design systems
  • Video and photography production
  • Print and digital design

The team is integral to the development and delivery of all marketing and the growth of our channels and partnerships. They are the guardians of the organisation’s brand identity, various sub-brands, event and product propositions, and support Brand Scotland’s aims.

Digital Delivery

Led by Head of Department Allan Henderson, this department consists of the following specialist technical teams:

  • User Experience (UX)
  • Solutions Architecture
  • Project and Programme Management
  • Web Operations
  • Test and Quality Assurance
  • Digital Product Ownership

Together, these teams cover the complete software development lifecycle. They work in cross-functional Agile teams within the Scrum methodology.

This department delivers a portfolio of strategic digital programmes across VisitScotland. This includes the flagship websites visitscotland.com, the Business Support Hub and VisitScotland.org. The organisation’s digital assets are informed and guided by user research, stakeholder feedback and analysis of data analytics. Digital Delivery focus on providing reliable and robust platforms to support our organisational objectives.

Global PR

Our Senior Manager Global PR Claire Dickson leads our Global PR team. Our international and domestic PR activity amplifies Scotland’s story through impactful media collaborations and working closely with tourism businesses, with a focus on seasonal and geographical spread to those areas with greatest capacity.

The team works with both consumer (travel, lifestyle) and travel trade media, building connections and strong relationships with editors through in-person meetings, PR pitches, regular email communication, hosted visits and attendance at media and travel trade events.

By securing authentic, editorial coverage in prestigious outlets, PR drives awareness, builds brand trust, and attracts high-value visitors who stay longer and engage deeply with local communities.

Our PR activity complements our wider programme of integrated marketing, this ensures Scotland stays on the mind of potential visitors.

Performance Marketing

Head of Department Leanne Mallon leads this department with a focus on making Scotland discoverable from the early stages of trip ideation through to planning and conversion. This team have expertise across marketing disciplines:

  • social media and influencer marketing
  • global media planning and activation
  • partnership marketing
  • email marketing
  • content
  • search engine optimisation
  • analytics

They are responsible for the planning, delivery, optimisation, and performance of our paid and owned marketing channels. The department delivers a programme of year-round, global marketing activity in six languages. This results in the creation of integrated visitor journeys to build awareness, engagement and advocacy.

Our marketing is designed to inspire visits in quieter months and to places with capacity, extending the season and spreading visitors and their spend across our communities and regions. Throughout all our activity, we encourage visitors to tread lightly and appreciate the impact of their visit on the places and people they encounter.  

Related links

Industry and Events Directorate

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

Our team

Find out about our directorates and meet our Board, Chair, and Chief Executive.