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Leading on identifying and prioritising opportunities for sustainable economic growth, and enhancing the profile of the visitor economy and VisitScotland’s role.

The 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 brand and storytelling, managing the Corporate Affairs function, including Policy and External Affairs, and the Creative Studio.

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 brand and reputation
  • visitor economy profile
  • strategic stakeholder engagement and international partnerships
  • business planning and prioritisation
  • competitive intelligence and horizon scanning
  • consumer, market, and industry trends
  • data analysis and forecasting
  • 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, including teams 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 2025

    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 three 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
  • leads on a programme of CEO and executive engagement, increasing visibility of our leadership and understanding of our vision
  • liaises with government to understand and inform policy and regulation developments relevant to the sector
  • delivers flagship events for VisitScotland and the industry, including VisitScotland Connect and the Scottish Thistle Awards programme

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 are integral partners supporting Brand Scotland’s ambition to drive Scotland’s international profile.

Data and Insights

The Data and Insights 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
  • conducting market research, trendspotting, and statistical analysis
  • delivering economic assessments, digital analytics, and data analysis
  • growing our global networks and translating market intelligence into meaningful strategic recommendations that drive long-term success
  • setting the vision and plans, working across functions to support operational prioritisation, to achieve organisational goals
  • developing a robust measurement and evaluation framework, demonstrating our impact across strategic priorities and establishing forward-looking plans
  • providing knowledge and insight to colleagues, partners, and industry
  • reporting to our executive team and Scottish Government on our contribution to the National Strategy for Economic Transformation and National Performance Framework
  • supporting the industry and organisation partners in the visitor economy with strategic intelligence to inform or refresh national, sector, or place-based strategies
  • delivering key strategic outputs, including the corporate plan, responsible tourism strategy, Gaelic strategy, and international networks
  • assessing competitor activity, to analyse and ascertain the landscape for future growth, and outline impactful recommendations for growth 

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