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This Strategy and Competitive Intelligence Directorate is responsible for providing a holistic view of the global travel and events environment through a comprehensive set of insights identifying and prioritising opportunities for sustainable economic growth.

The directorate is also responsible for the organisation’s Corporate Affairs function, including Policy and External Affairs. These teams work to enhance the profile of the visitor economy across a broad range of stakeholders and showcase our role in growing its value to Scotland.

Key areas of focus are:

  • corporate reputation
  • strategic stakeholder engagement
  • strategic planning
  • competitive intelligence
  • horizon scanning
  • consumer and industry trends
  • data analysis
  • innovative tools and methodologies
  • support to cross-functional strategic projects
  • capability building

In this article:

Director of Strategy and Competitive Intelligence – Cat Leaver

An award-winning strategic leader with experience across the private and public sectors, Cat was appointed Director of Strategy and Competitive Intelligence in November 2024.

She had previously led departments across VisitScotland, ranging from user experience (UX) and front-end development to content, creative, PR, and global campaigns.

Before joining the organisation, Cat was the inaugural Director of Brand Scotland, where she led a cross-agency initiative to enhance Scotland’s global profile.

She also spent more than seven years in the digital agency world, leading teams in London, Manchester, and Glasgow, and serving a diverse global client base.

Cat is an ambassador for the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice and has held non-executive board positions, as well as advisory board roles with City Nation Place and The Marketing Society of Scotland.

Director of Strategy and Competitive Intelligence, Cat LeaverDirector of Strategy and Competitive Intelligence, Cat Leaver

Latest blogs and Q&As

  • 2 October

    Hear from Cat in her latest blog, in which she reflects on progress, acknowledges challenges, and renews the shared goals of our climate commitment.

    Sustainability is something we and the wider industry focus on every day. For us, responsible tourism isn’t just a goal; it’s the foundation of a sector that can adapt, flourish, and deliver real benefits for all.

    Read the blog on linkedin.com.

Departments within this directorate

Our Strategy and Competitive Intelligence Directorate consists of the following four departments.

Corporate Affairs

Our Corporate Affairs department is led by Carolyn Churchill. The team:

  • manages and protects VisitScotland's reputation
  • delivers effective communications to engage and inform stakeholder groups of our activity and the importance of the visitor economy to Scotland’s economic growth
  • works with a wide range of groups including the media, Scottish Government and the tourism and events industry
  • engages with staff to support them to be Scottish tourism ambassadors
  • delivers flagship events for VisitScotland and the industry, including VisitScotland Connect and the Scottish Thistle Awards programme

Creative Studio

Our Senior Manager Creative Studio, 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 teams champion the VisitScotland brand as well as Scotland’s destination brand, ensuring that all creative communication, content, event, campaign, and digital outputs are aligned to the brand's values, essence, and attributes. The Creative Studio has expertise across:

  • brand design and governance
  • creative direction
  • design systems
  • video and photography production
  • print, illustration and digital design

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

Data & Insight

The Data & Insight department  is led by John Quinn and focuses on several areas, which include:

  • developing and delivering a strategic insight and competitive intelligence programme
  • ensuring we have a comprehensive understanding of the global travel and events environment to fully inform our priorities and our partners in the visitor economy
  • informing and guiding the development of robust, forward-looking and measurable plans
  • conducting market research, trendspotting and statistical analysis
  • delivering economic assessments, digital analytics and data analysis
  • providing knowledge and insight to colleagues, partners,  and industry

Strategy

The Strategy team is led by Gwen Raez and works to:

  • grow our global networks and translate market intelligence into meaningful strategic recommendations that drive long-term success
  • set the vision and establish plans, working across functions to support prioritisation, to achieve organisational goals
  • work in close collaboration with Insights to develop a robust measurement and evaluation framework, demonstrating our impact across strategic priorities
  • report to our executive team and Scottish Government on our contribution to the National Strategy for Economic Transformation and National Performance Framework
  • deliver key strategic outputs including the corporate plan, annual report, responsible tourism strategy, Gaelic strategy, and international networks
  • assess competitor activity, analyse and ascertain the landscape for future growth, and outline impactful recommendations for growth
  • support the industry and organisation partners in the visitor economy with strategic intelligence to inform or refresh national, sector or place-based strategies
  • work with Scottish public sector agencies and the not-for-profit sector,  who are key stakeholders in the development and delivery of Scotland’s tourism and event strategies

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