Scott's work is a tour de force

By Catherine MacGillivray

May 2012

See this article as it appears in the magazine

TOURISM leader Scott Armstrong believes that the "warts and all" effect of modern social media can be a boon to the industry in the Highlands and Islands.

He points out that good old-fashioned word of mouth recommendations are worth their weight in gold and, nowadays, savvy smartphone users and anyone on social networking sites can share their experiences almost instantly.

As the tourism industry faces challenges presented by the downturn in the economy, Scott says that businesses must strive harder to offer quality for money to visitors.

"Tourism has held up pretty well in the Highlands considering the difficult economic conditions that all the Western economies are experiencing," he says. "However, it is a challenging situation and businesses have to work extremely hard to maintain business levels. Customers are demanding more all the time and they expect value for money – this doesn't necessarily mean lowering prices, it's more about adding value, making customers feel that what they purchased or experienced was good and memorable."

Scott is urging businesses to remain customer-focused and be aware that the growth of new technology and means of communication – such as social media – allows visitors to make recommendations to others immediately.

"Businesses will be reviewed and compared and some of these reviews will undoubtedly be unfair but customers love the 'warts and all' reviews, so businesses need to embrace this change and use it to their own advantage," he says. "Many businesses are, of course, already doing this, and social media offers many opportunities in terms of word of mouth recommendations."

Scott is regional partnerships director – north of Scotland for VisitScotland, which is the country's national tourism agency.

Based at Cowan House in Inverness, he is the agency's main contact for industry groups across the north, including destination management organisations such as Moray Tourism Development Group, Destination Loch Ness and the Outdoor Capital of the UK group in Lochaber, as well as other tourism organisations like the Ullapool Tourism and Business Group and the Assynt Tourism Group.

"I work in partnership with all these groups, on behalf of VisitScotland, to ensure that their work complements each other's and is aligned," he explains. "The main aim is to raise the profile of tourism and ensure it continues to grow and contribute to the economic health and wellbeing of the region."

Scott is also the main VisitScotland contact for other stakeholder organisations in the Highlands and Moray such as the local authorities, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland, and is the main point of contact in the region for local MSPs as well as being VisitScotland's media spokesman in the Highlands.

He heads up a team of 10 staff who deal directly with individual businesses across the area, to help them work with VisitScotland through the agency's many marketing channels.

This includes the staff who undertake the quality assurance visits, providing an advisory role to tourism businesses in the region, as well as awarding star ratings.

"I am responsible for the Highlands, Moray and Outer Hebrides areas, although we have an islands manager based in Stornoway who covers most aspects of the work in the Outer Hebrides that I undertake in the Highlands and Moray areas," he explains.

Scott's career has spanned the many metamorphoses of Scotland's tourism agency.

Born in Stirling but educated in Edinburgh, he joined the then Scottish Tourist Board (STB) after gaining a BSc (Hons) degree in geography at Glasgow University and a postgraduate diploma in tourism at Strathclyde University.

Seven years in the STB's Edinburgh office were followed by 10 as director of tourism with the Clyde Valley Tourist Board before moving north in 1996 to take up the post of head of marketing with the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board (HOST) based in Strathpeffer.

Scott became acting chief executive of HOST in the run-up to it being absorbed by VisitScotland 2005 and was subsequently appointed area director for the new agency, covering the Highland Council region, responsible for a budget of about 
£2.5 million.

After a further VisitScotland re-organisation in 2008, Scott became regional director in strategic relations covering the Highland, Moray and Argyll and Bute council areas – an area equivalent to half of Scotland.

Then, in 2010 another shake-up saw him assume responsibility for the Highland and Moray council areas.

Having been through all the changes, Scott believes that the tourism agency has become more efficient and effective.

"It's a more integrated organisation and undoubtedly VisitScotland produces some really excellent and sophisticated marketing with sufficient resources behind it to make a genuine impact," he says.

"The Highlands, having Scotland's best scenery, features very prominently in VisitScotland marketing and therefore the area gets great exposure both nationally and internationally. This is much more so than could be achieved by a smaller regional tourist board which just would not have the funding or the clout to achieve what the national tourism agency can."

VisitScotland is primarily a marketing organisation and its award-winning campaigns both within the UK and internationally have consistently shown hugely impressive returns on investment of 20:1, which Scott says no other industry can deliver in such a short timeframe.

"VisitScotland sells Scotland to the world, bringing millions of visitors and billions of pounds to the country," he points out. "We develop inspirational campaigns based on knowing the customer inside out and the Highlands features very heavily in all our campaigns, often providing the leading imagery."

It was a love of travel that led Scott into a career in tourism in the first place, having visited many countries in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America in his younger years.

And nowadays his likes to visit the areas he is promoting, citing the islands such Orkney, Harris, Barra, Colonsay, Eigg, Rum, Skye, Arran and Mull as well as the Cairngorms and Moray amongst his favourite spots.

Scott also enjoys hill walking, cycling and mountain biking in his free time.

"Road cycling is mostly near my home in Kirkhill and for mountain biking, my favourite locations are Abriachan near Loch Ness and Learnie Red Rock on the Black Isle," he reveals.

In fact, biking is one of many attractions that Scott feels put the Highlands on the map.

"The Mountain Bike World Cup which has been held in Fort William for the last several years, as well as being a personal favourite of mine, is particularly appropriate for the Highlands, providing a snapshot of so much that the Highlands is about – cool and contemporary outdoor activities in magnificent scenery," he says. "It was also great to have the Scottish Open here last year and to have it come back again, which provided a significant economic boost to the region.

"A growth in music festivals in the area has provided a significant economic boost as well, with events such as Rock Ness, Belladrum and Loopallu, in particular, having grown into must-do events in the national music festival calendar."

Scott is also urging those working in the tourism sector in the Highlands to start thinking how they can cash in on major events in the so-called "winning years".

These include the Year of Creative Scotland 2012, the London 2012 Olympics; the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012; the launch this summer of a new Disney/Pixar animated film called Brave; the Year of Natural Scotland 2013; Homecoming Scotland 2014; and the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup in 2014.

"The 'winning years' are the chance to bring economic growth to the country by focusing every public sector body, every tourism business and every member of the Scottish population on one goal," says Scott. "The eyes of the world will be on these top-class events – they need to be focused on Scotland and what it has to offer. VisitScotland will be targeting its marketing and events expertise on growing tourism opportunities, working hand in hand with the tourism industry."

Tourism, vital to the Scottish economy and even more relevant to the Highlands, attracts 2.5 million visitors to the north every year.

The industry is worth some £640 million to the Highland Council area and a further £90 million to Moray.

Everybody in the area is impacted by tourism and Scott believes everyone can play a part in boosting the visitor experience.

"The term 'tourism is everyone's business' is absolutely true and we should all be ambassadors for our country," he says. "The warmth of our welcome and how friendly we are to visitors is hugely important and just cannot be overstated. Fortunately, we Scots are naturally friendly and welcoming, and visitor surveys do consistently show this but we just need to keep this going and if we can make it even better, great."