Press release -
“The best job in the world.”
The search is on for a new Chair to lead the board at VisitScotland – Scotland’s tourism organisation.
The position is being advertised from today by the Scottish Government with an appointment planned for spring 2016.
The role of the Chair is to drive the strategic direction of VisitScotland, develop collaboration with key stakeholders, represent Scotland on the global stage and provide advice and guidance to Scottish ministers on tourism issues.
Skills including leadership, networking, corporate governance and communication are being sought, along with an understanding of the tourism sector.
Scottish tourism creates jobs, sustains communities and provides an international shop window for Scotland. Latest figures show that visitor expenditure in 2014 was around £10billion with the wider visitor economy worth more than £12billion. Around 200,000 people are employed in the industry – across every corner of Scotland.
The Chair will lead a board of eight people and the appointment is due to start from April 1 2016 for three years.
Current Chairman Mike Cantlay, who will step down from the post on 31 March 2016 after 6 years, said:
“It is with a heavy heart that you leave an organisation that you feel passionately for, but at the same time it is a fantastic job. We are looking for someone with real vision, expertise and enthusiasm to drive Scottish tourism forward in what is a challenging and competitive marketplace.
“It is has been five years of incredible moments for me, from welcoming the world to Scotland in 2014, with a line-up of unprecedented world class events, to working with Disney to achieve worldwide animated history with Brave. The person chosen to take over my position as Chair of VisitScotland will be one of the luckiest around – as this really is the best job in the world.”
Applications close on 24 November 2015. For more information, visit https://applications.appointed-for-scotland.org/Default.aspx
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
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- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
- This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
- Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
- Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
- Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
- Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
- Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
- Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
- Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, the tourism economy supports 270,000 jobs in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the tourism economy contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business events in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
Year of Food and Drink 2015- 2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’s natural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping our economic success.
- Scotland generates over £2.5m per day through food and drink tourism.
- A series of themed months will create an appetite for key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafood and whisky to berries and high-quality meat
- For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/tastescotland
