NeilBrownlee Head of BusinessTourism, BusinessTourism Unit VisitScotland
Increased emphasis onROI an effective business practice
As the group travel market continues its slow but steady return to health, what will your destination be doing to remain competitive? Business tourismcontinues to play a vital role in Scotland and is currently worth £827 million to the economy, up from 18 per- cent in 2008. Scotland has a resilient nature. Despite the chal- lenging climate, last yearwerecorded 2.47 million business trips, representing an increase ofmore than 7 percent over the pre- vious year. This must be because we offer top quality at sur- prisingly good prices. We will be banging the drum in two
main areas: new venues and value for money. A massive amount of new prod- uct development and upgrades are entic- ing planners to keep Scotland at the top of their agenda. The Commonwealth Games, which come to Glasgow in 2014, have been the catalyst for a superb range of developments. Millions of pounds worth ofinvestment is taking place not only in Glasgow, but across the entire country, so the choice ofquality venues and accommodation options is constantly expanding. Other developments include expansions at two of our leading con- vention centers—the Edinburgh Inter- national Conference Centre and the Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre in Glasgow. We will also continue to demonstrate the excellent value avail-
able in Scotland. The Gleneagles Hotel and the Fairmont St Andrews both offer guaranteed dollar rates and packages. Finally,wewill continue to offer meeting planners many oppor- tunities to experience Scotland first-hand. Last year we hosted nearly 200buyers onfamiliarization trips around Scotland,while nearly 900 buyers attended our showcase events. This doesn’t include the 1,500 visitors to our booth at exhibitions.
If you couldturn back time, wouldyou choose to go back to the dominant way of doing business in and the general business environment of 2007? Yes and no. Thenewtrends ofsocial responsibility, sustainability, green tourism, and general transparency are good, and Scotland
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has already responded well. Increased emphasis on ROI is an effective business practice for all. On the other hand, I think everyone in this industry wishes that the value ofincentive pro- grams had not been so distorted in the public eye. They remain an effective sales tool, and all of usmust drive thismessage home.
How are younger CVB andmeeting professionals changing the industry? They are joining us on a waveofnewtechnology, but inmyexpe- rience, the technology is also embraced most enthusiastically by those of us who started off in this indus- try in the 1980s and 1990s! Obvious changes include hard-copy brochures mostly giving way to digital channels of information. There is the Internet for researching and social media for dissem- inating and finding information. People look for and follow “opinion-formers” via blogs. There is much easier access to word of mouth from organizers on their experiences with particular venues or to make suggestions. On the negative side, there is still too
much data input masquerading as account management.We have all given out a business card to someone at an
event who had something ofinterest to say at the time, only to be bombarded with irrelevant e-shots sent seemingly on awhim to thousands of folk. Unsubscribe!
What innovations in the realm of social media/ networking andtechnology in general will your destination be pursuing in 2011? AgeneralVisitScotland social-media strategy is about tobe rolled out. The Business Tourism Unit already engages with Twitter and Facebook.
GOOD AND BAD: While valuable, Neil Brownlee said, social media has enabled “data input masquerading as account management.”