The Scottish Tourism Data Partnership is a new collaborative initiative bringing together industry leaders, universities, and the public sector to shape how data and technology can support Scotland’s ambition to become a global leader in tourism.
The partnership aims to make comprehensive, timely data insights accessible to all tourism stakeholders through a collaborative approach. This will help us to achieve the goal agreed by the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Leadership Group (THILG), that by 2030 every tourism business in Scotland will have the data they need, as well as helping businesses make smarter decisions and strengthening Scotland’s competitive edge.
Focus Areas:
The group agreed on four key areas where data could transform the sector:
- Visitor Flow Management: understanding and managing visitor movement to improve experiences and ease pressure on destinations.
- Investment: using data to attract and guide investment into the right places at the right time.
- Business Intelligence: giving tourism operators, from the largest to the smallest, the insights they need to make confident decisions.
- Knowledge Graph: developing an interconnected, dynamic map of Scotland’s tourism data to support discovery, innovation and joined-up thinking.
Working groups have been set up to explore these areas in more depth. Each one brings together voices from industry, academia, and the public sector, tasked with exploring the challenges, spotting opportunities, and co-designing solutions.
The hope is that this collaborative model will generate innovative, transdisciplinary projects that can be scaled across Scotland.
Illustration credit: James Albon
