Knowledge is the key to recovery

At VisitScotland we continue to work with the tourism and events industry to tackle ongoing coronavirus issues -  working closely with industry bodies, government and enterprise agencies to help you negotiate the many many problems you’re facing. It’s a real team effort to support this amazing industry.

It’s still very early in this pandemic for Scotland but we are now starting to consider a plan for a recovery, focusing on our marketing activity and when we can start to promote the country again.

For that recovery to be at the right time with the right resources, we have to look at how the markets are developing and plan for when things start to improve. Our insights team is monitoring how the consumer and future traveller is behaving to see if there are opportunities for Scotland in the medium term.

We know, of course that in the short term it’s the stay safe, stay home message and don’t go far from your front door when exercising or shopping for essentials. I am astounded at how tourism businesses have responded to the situation in a way that should make us all proud. They have opened their doors to essential workers, shown innovation by turning their restaurants into takeaway services and have encouraged the visitors to come to their “virtual” attractions online – all in the face of the worst disaster to hit tourism ever.

Recovery will take time as businesses gear up and markets rebound at different speeds, but tourism is a resilient industry bringing economic and social benefits to every corner of Scotland, critical for the future well-being of all our communities. Initially, the most immediate opportunity will be with the domestic market. As long haul and short haul markets recover and consumer confidence returns, partnership working and market readiness will be crucial in addition to having the infrastructure and supply chains in place to ensure that we are ready to meet increased demand. 

As well as keeping in contact with hundreds of our industry colleagues with business advice and support and putting the latest financial support information or toolkits on how to manage social media on visitscotland.org, we are turning to our insights and research expertise to support you.

We are putting together a weekly marketing intel paper on VisitScotland.org to give you a flavour of how other markets are behaving. Here's what our intel is telling us:

• We are already starting to see the domestic market in China starting to show green shoots of recovery with domestic attractions reopening and internal flights restarting - that’s almost five months from the first case being identified. (although we can’t draw any parallels just yet). China’s primary focus has moved to preventing a second wave of infection from overseas. They have now established strict regulations relating to international travel.
• Domestic tourism and staycations appear to be the driving force behind numerous destinations’ recovery strategies.
• Domestically some events are instigating innovative digital solutions to engage audiences and entertain people while they stay at home.
• Provider loyalty schemes, regular communications and conversations with their customer base and engaging content through social media channels will support activity especially with domestic markets.
• Developing digital skills, investment in new technology for online bookings and visitor engagement is required now to be ready to capitalise on these trends.
• In the US we have been actively reaching out to our key US travel trade partners and airline partners providing virtual Scotland content to providing relevant product development support. Overall feedback from our US partners demonstrates a strong sentiment that many look forward to promoting our country in the future, when the market recovers and it is safe for people to travel again.
• Australia is now essentially in lockdown with restrictions on international and domestic travel. Larger operators are trying to encourage clients to rebook to later in 2020 or 2021, and offering incentives to do so.
• In Europe #dreamnowtravellater is being used across various tourism boards in Europe.
• Germany is not under federal lockdown, but some cities have used lockdown measures at their discretion to contain the spread of COVID-19. All official measures are in place until 19 April.
• There is a discussion about moving Germany‘s school summer holidays (6 weeks) from summer to autumn.
• Flight bookings from Germany to the UK for 2020 have declined by 63% in the last 14 days (compared to the same time last year), but bookings for January 2021 have increased by 242% (www.fvw.de)
• The tourism association Touring Club Italiano, has launched a campaign called “Passion Italy” to encourage Italian visitors to discover and rediscover the country from home. The campaign provides a comforting message to remind us that Italian heritage has survived many tragedies and is inspired by a quote from Fyodor Dostoevsky: “Beauty will save the world”. touringclub.it
• Belgium and Luxemburg are only allowing essential domestic travel; however, borders remain open. Finland, Faroe Island and Norway require minimum 14 days’ quarantine upon arrival, meaning borders are effectively closed. The Netherlands only allow travel for EU, EFTA and UK citizens.

Although still early on, we are already seeing some interesting trends through our insights team – take a look at the full marketing intel report.