VisitScotland is Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

's national tourism

Tourism in Scotland

Scotland is a well-developed tourist destination, with tourism generally being responsible for sustaining 200,000 jobs mainly in the service sector, with tourist spending averaging at £4bn per year. Tourists from the United Kingdom make up the bulk of visitors to Scotland...

 agency

Government agency

A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...

. It is a public body, with offices in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Inverness

Inverness

Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 as well as other parts of Scotland. It operates alongside VisitBritain

VisitBritain

VisitBritain is the name used by the British Tourist Authority, the tourist board of Great Britain incorporated under the Development of Tourism Act 1969....

, an organisation with a similar remit for Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 as a whole.

VisitScotland brought VisitScotland.com

Visitscotland.com

VisitScotland.com is the trading name of eTourism Ltd, a private limited company set up by a public-private partnership in 2002. It is currently jointly owned by VisitScotland , Tiscover, Partnerships UK Ltd, and Atos Origin, though as of December 2008, ownership is soon expected to transfer solely...

, a public-private partnership

Public-private partnership

Public–private partnership describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies...

 back into public ownership in 2008.

One of the organisation's tasks is attracting visitors to Scotland, which it does through advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

, promotional campaigns

Promotion (marketing)

Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix . It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision....

, as well as encouraging press articles

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 on Scotland and what it has to offer the business or consumer visitor.

VisitScotland has come in for criticism for not devoting sufficient resources to certain areas of the tourism industry and for spending money on areas that are not deemed suitable, for example Tartan Week, held each year in the United States of America. The high-profile of coverage afforded to VisitScotland shows the importance of tourism to Scotland's economy.

VisitScotland also aims to work with the tourism industry in Scotland to maintain standards in visitor attractions and accommodation provision, which it does through its quality grading schemes. VisitScotland works with its industry partners on area tourism partnership agreements.

One aspect of VisitScotland's work is it manages a network of websites featuring a variety of travel interest and holiday activity themes. These, include Golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, Walking

Walking

Walking is one of the main gaits of locomotion among legged animals, and is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an 'inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults over the stiff limb or limbs with each step...

, Cycling

Cycling

Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...

, City Breaks, Adventure

Adventure

An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...

, Ancestral

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

, Ski Scotland and Wildlife

Wildlife

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....

and can be found via www.visitscotland.com. There are also a number of International language Scotland Gateway Web sites including the recent addition of the Come to Scotland website - the official Scottish Gateway for North America. Information from VisitScotland's Business Tourism Unit can be found on (http://www.conventionscotland.com).

External links

• Official Web site - www.visitscotland.org The corporate site of Scotland's national tourism organisation
• Official Web site - www.visitscotland.com The official guide to accommodation, activities, events and vacations in Scotland