Tourism businesses urged to listen to visitors

Jim Mather, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, will launch the 'Listening to Our Visitors' project at the Visitor Experience Conference in Glasgow, to encourage companies to enhance their business and improve the visitor experience of Scotland by better capturing and utilising customer feedback.

Initiated and managed by Scottish Enterprise, the project has been developed by a group of tourism operators in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and VisitScotland.

As part of the programme, companies will be told that in today's increasingly competitive market it is important for tourism businesses to question what they know about their visitors: who they are, why they've come and what they want out of their trip.  By understanding visitors' needs and expectations more effectively, companies will be able to improve the visitor experience on offer, so that visitors stay longer, spend more, come back for more and recommend Scotland to their friends and relatives.

Mr Mather said: "In this year of the Homecoming, and with many other sectors facing significant pressures, tourism is more important than ever to Scotland. Fortunately, we and the industry are alive to the opportunities to both maximise visitor enjoyment of Scotland and develop new and innovative ways of encouraging them to come back to our fantastic country time and time again.

"This is a great new initiative. If we are to remain ahead of the game, it is vital that Scotland listens to the views of all our visitors, and adapt quickly and effectively to meet and exceed their needs. And there is no more important time to do that than now with the changing economic situation we are seeing right across the globe.

"Happily, Scotland is a country that is full of opportunity and a tourism trade that is populated by many capable people. Now at this important stage, the Scottish Government and the Scottish tourism industry are united as never before in a workmanlike joint effort to exploit that opportunity to the full. Together, we will ensure that Scotland continues to be one of the "must visit" countries in the world."

Tourism businesses will be told that listening to feedback can make a real difference to a company's bottom line. Organisations that have customer feedback mechanisms embedded within their culture recognise that understanding their visitors helps drive innovation and tend to be far more successful in their enterprise. It also provides a practical incentive for local businesses to work together to capture what visitors are saying about the area and plan what they can do to address the opportunities.

Julie Franchetti, tourism innovation manager at Scottish Enterprise added: "In the current climate flexibility and innovation are even more important for business survival and laying the foundations for future success.

"Businesses need up-to-date intelligence to be able to respond to shifting market opportunities. Good customer relations and feedback will monitor changing expectations, so companies can develop new experiences and service development to ensure they are competitive and attractive. We've had a great response to this project in its pilot phase and we look forward to rolling it out across Scotland."

A practical guide that looks at how to gather and effectively utilise customer feedback is being disseminated to over 10,000 businesses, and a dedicated web space with templates and case studies will be launched on the Tourism Intelligence Scotland website shortly.

The project also includes 25 free, half day workshops, set to roll out to approximately 400 businesses across Scotland in the spring of 2009. The first 12 of these have been programmed and will be offered free of charge to the first businesses and areas that sign up.

For more information on the guide and the workshops, including how to book, visit the Listening to our visitors website