VisitScotland.com brought into public ownership

VisitScotland, as the national tourism agency, has a strategic role as the public sector agency providing leadership and direction for the development of Scottish tourism in order to get the maximum economic benefit for Scotland. We exist to support the development of the tourism industry in Scotland and to market Scotland as a quality destination.

We view VisitScotland.com and the services it provides as being central to the continued success of Scottish tourism. The site is a trusted source of information for consumers with 98% of users recommending the site to family and friends. The use of the internet for collecting travel information and making bookings has been central to our marketing approach for several years. It will continue to be central to our approach. As an organisation we closely monitor emerging developments and changing consumer behaviour and change our approach and tacVICs to reflect these developments.

2. What Changes are we Announcing?

Following discussions with our partners: Tiscover, Partnerships UK and Atos Origin we can announce that VisitScotland will take full control of VisitScotland.com. While industry and consumers will notice no immediate difference this deal will deliver long-term benefits.

VisitScotland has been in regular discussions with its partners and other stakeholders to consider how the website can continue to evolve to meet today's demands and changing market trends. The discussions were driven by the recognition that the original visitscotland.com concept and business model needed to change. This was primarily driven by the changing consumer and market trends that are outlined in more detail below.

This move is also a response to business feedback, the current economic environment and the recommendations made by the Economy, Energy & Tourism Committee in their recent report : Growing Pains - can we achieve a 50% growth in tourist revenue by 2015?

3. Why is VisitScotland.com Changing?

The original concept and business model for VisitScotland.com was for a “one stop shop” that could meet all a customer’s information and booking needs for a trip to Scotland via any communication channel. This meant providing a contact centre for phone calls, letters and emails and a comprehensive web site covering information, booking and sales. The common assumption at the time was that consumers would find convenience in the “one stop shop” and would stick to a limited number of well known providers for their needs.

Although only six years ago, there have been significant developments affecting this premise. Most notably, the availability of broadband internet access has made it much easier to reach a great many rich and varied web sites very easily and in parallel. On top of this, the marked progress in internet search capabilities – particularly through the advent of Google – has made it much easier to find relevant sites. You don’t need to get on to one site and stay there; you can move rapidly between dozens of sites, making comparisons and purchases from any number on the way. Furthermore, you don’t even need to stay on a computer; information can be accessed via mobile phones, PDAs, interactive TV and other routes. A new flexibility is required to meet these continuing changes.

In addition, the public attitude to contact centres has changed, a trend which has been accelerated by the outsourcing of call centres, and the increased capability of websites has led to a decline in telephone enquiries and bookings. Although the service provided from the VisitScotland.com. contact centre has been very successful, consumer usage has dropped off significantly as people choose increasingly to move on-line.

These trends, coupled with industry feedback indicating a preference in some areas for more direct contact with customers, have already led us to review and reposition VisitScotland.com but we must continue to adapt and all shareholders agree that a vehicle with single ownership, more closely aligned to VisitScotland marketing, will be better positioned to take this on.

4. What is our Future Strategy for VisitScotland.com?

The services currently offered by VisitScotland.com will continue to be provided. VisitScotland’s future strategy will be built on the good work already carried out until this point. Our future strategy is based on VisitScotland.com being more responsive to changing trends and it will place.

greater emphasis on the provision of rich information to inspire people to visit Scotland;
increased emphasis on encouraging potential visitors to use the site;
greater emphasis on encouraging direct contact between potential visitors and businesses; and
an increased range of commercial offerings available via VisitScotland.com.

5. VisitScotland.com the Most Visited National Tourism Website

Although now needing to change, VisitScotland.com has been a success, bringing in over £65 million through over 500,000 bookings since its inception. The joint venture has delivered a very effective tourism marketing, support and booking system at a very modest level of investment from public funds. However, as outlined above the site has to evolve, but we are confident that it will continue to deliver excellent results. The site already has in the region of 100,000 pages of information and is well known and well trusted with consumers so we have a very solid base on which to build.

We believe that Scotland continues to lead the world with our tourism destination website, which attracted more than 11 million users in 2007 – further evidence of its trusted status with consumers. These changes will mean that we are best placed to allow that success to continue. The site will continue to offer a rich source of information and the ability to buy online. Other major nations have not achieved this. In terms of traffic to the website, VisitScotland.com outperforms the websites of VisitBritain, VisitWales and EnjoyEngland combined. Most of this traffic is driven by VisitScotland’s very successful marketing campaigns.

The site currently has over 9,300 businesses listed (Quality Assured by VisitScotland where a relevant scheme exists). The Web in a Box package already has over 350 users, giving them an easy to use means of setting up their own websites linked to VisitScotland.com. The website has recently evolved in response to close consultation with industry and focus groups. However, we recognise that the site has to continue to evolve and we are listening and acting on the feedback we receive from consumers and industry.

There are many examples of businesses that have benefited from using VisitScotland.com products such as Web-in-a-Box. These, include:

a guest house in Glasgow's west end which has taken over £75,000 (from WIAB alone) since starting the system last November.
a hotel in East Lothian which has taken over £12,000 in revenue from WIAB since February 2008.
a small hotel in the east end of Edinburgh (close to Haymarket Station) which has taken over £11,000 this year from WIAB.
a self-caterer in Oban who has taken an extra £4870 revenue during summer 2008 because of WIAB.
a small inn on the Isle of Mull which has taken an extra £1660 in revenue after staring WIAB 3 months ago.
a small accommodation establishment on Skye (6 rooms) which has taken over £8,000 in revenue from WIAB over the last year.

6. When will the change take effect?

Initial agreement has been reached and negotiations are underway to finalise contractual details. Preliminary work on the practical issues is already being done by staff at VisitScotland and VisitScotland.com. A Project Leader been appointed to ensure a smooth transition.