VisitScotland, formerly the Scottish Tourist Board (), is a national

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

organisation for Scotland. It is an

executive non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of na ...

of the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

, with offices in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

, and other parts of Scotland. Among the organisation's tasks is the attraction of visitors to Scotland through

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

and promotional campaigns. VisitScotland also manages a number of quality grading schemes for tourist accommodation and attractions. The organisation also operates the VisitScotland.com website which provides bookings and information service for visitors to Scotland. From 2001 this website was operated as a public-private partnership venture, though this venture (and the website) was brought back into public ownership in 2008.

Aims and operation

VisitScotland's primary aim is to market Scotland as a tourism destination, which it does through advertising and promotion as well as encouraging press articles on Scotland and what it has to offer the business or consumer visitor. The organisation also seeks to work with the tourism industry in Scotland to maintain standards in visitor attractions and accommodation provision. It does this through a number of specific quality grading schemes. VisitScotland also runs the Thistle Awards, which are awarded to the best tourism businesses each year.

Website

VisitScotland.com is the official website of VisitScotland. The website acts as a bookings and information service for visitors to Scotland. Accommodation availability information, as well as more general information about Scotland, is provided from the www.visitscotland.com domain. VisitScotland.com was initially the trading name of eTourism Ltd, a private limited company set up by a public-private partnership. In 2003 the IT services group

SchlumbergerSema Sema Group plc was an Anglo-French IT services company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was acquired by Schlumberger in 2001. History The company was founded in 1988 by the merger of th ...

was taken over by

Atos Atos SE is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company with headquarters in Bezons suburb of Paris, France, and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communicat ...

. There was a major restructuring in July 2006 that saw VisitScotland increase its stake from 25% to 36%, Austrian booking specialist Tiscover took a 35% share and ATOS reduced its stake from 60% to 7%.

Partnerships UK Partnerships UK plc (PUK) was a centralized unit responsible for furthering public-private partnerships in the United Kingdom. It was a public limited company formed in 2000, owned jointly by HM Treasury and the private sector. It ceased activity ...

Ltd had also been shareholders. The ownership of VisitScotland.com became a divisive issue within the Scottish tourism industry. A number of accommodation providers lodged a petition with the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

to return the group to public ownership, arguing that the use of public money to fund the parent company eTourism Ltd was disrupting competition, an assertion which eTourism unconditionally rejected. In 2008, a

inquiry led by

Tavish Scott Tavish Hamilton Scott (born 6 May 1966) is a former Scottish politician. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Shetland from 1999 to 2019, and Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2008 to 2011. He stepped down as Lea ...

considered some problems associated with the website and made the recommendation that the Scottish Government find additional resources to resolve these. On 7 November 2008, it was announced that ownership of VisitScotland.com was to be transferred solely to VisitScotland, with £1.2 million of funds being used to purchase shares from all other shareholders.

References

Tourism in Scotland Executive non-departmental public bodies of the Scottish Government Organisations based in Edinburgh Economy Directorates Foreign relations of Scotland 1969 establishments in Scotland Government agencies established in 1969 Tourism organisations in the United Kingdom {{Scotland-gov-stub

Aims and operation

Website

See also

References