Frequently Asked Questions

A Briefing Note for the Shadow Board, Dumfries & Galloway Destination Development Organisation

Prepared by Yvonne Crook and Terry Stevens

The Stevens View Partnership                     17 August 2009

 1.What do we mean by ‘tourism’?

    Strictly speaking a tourist is a person who travels to the D & G area in order to spend at least 24 hours in the destination away from their home.
    These overnight tourism trips can be for either leisure or business purposes.
    Leisure tourism can be for relaxation, recreation, to participate in an activity or to simply ‘get away from it all’. Business tourism involves attending meetings, conferences or incentive trips.
    Tourists have the choice to stay in a wide range of commercial accommodation in the area; alternatively they can stay or visit with friends or relatives. (These are known as the VFR or SFR markets).
    In Scotland the definition of ‘tourism’ also takes into account those leisure day visitors who travel to D & G for at least three hours for leisure purposes but who return home or to their accommodation which is located outside the area. These day visitors are an important market for the region.
    Together, day and staying visitor spending makes up what is known as ‘the visitor economy’. This is worth over £220 million to the local economy.
A detailed fact sheet on Tourism in Dumfries and Galloway is downloadable from www.visitscotland.org/ research and statistics.

2.What benefits does tourism bring to our communities?

Tourism …
boosts the economy, creating wealth for local businesses and income for local residents;
generates and supports year-round employment;
helps sustain local facilities and services, helping to keep them viable and available for local people to use;
creates positive images, thus encouraging civic pride, creating awareness and helping to make this a great place to visit, live, work and study;
supports a better environment and encourages good environmental stewardship;
pays its way, inducing secondary spending throughout the community, as well as encouraging enterprise and innovation.

3.How important is tourism in our economy?

Tourism, including both stay and day visitors, is one of the most important industries in the region and the visitor economy accounts for all economic activity.
The spending positively impacts on every type of business throughout the region … indeed “tourism is everybody’s business”. Of the total tourist spending in 2008 over £200 million goes directly into local businesses with a further £50-£60 million as secondary spending permeating throughout all parts of our local economy. Over 6,700 jobs are in tourism-related employment. This is 11.5% of the total work force in the region.

4.How can we maximise the benefit from tourism for our communities?

1.    By having an agreed tourism strategy, an unambiguous brand and a strong marketing plan;
2.    By working together to plug gaps in product development and reduce the leakage of visitor spending from our area and to ensure we keep as much of the spending by our guests within the local economy;
3.    By combining our different products and services to create packages for visitors of more things to do that attract new visitors and keep our guests here longer;
4.    By extending the season and becoming a year-round destination;
5.    By attracting higher spending tourists and, importantly;
6.    By working together to create a high quality, seamless experience for all our visitors thus increasing visitor satisfaction and encouraging repeat visits.
This is achieved by having a strong, strategically-focused DDO that will coordinate this combined effort, integrate all the different parts of the tourist experience and add value to our individual efforts.

5.What is a destination development organisation and what does it do?

A DDO is generally a commercially-driven private sector led partnership organisation committed to the continual improvement of tourism in the area in a strategic way for the benefit of local businesses, the community and our visitors. These are organisations which are commonly found in successful destinations in Europe and North America and now increasingly in Scotland. It is the body that makes things happen. It will be the main point of reference for tourism in D & G.
    The DDO will undertake a wide range of activities that will:
Provide the strategic direction for product development, branding and marketing;
attract day visitors and tourists through marketing and promotion;
provide the visitor with improved services and facilities within the area such as information, events and entertainment;
serve the industry with quality information, research and awareness building;
coordinate activities and improve communications with businesses and organisations in the destination;
maximise the community benefits resulting from tourism.

6.What will the DDO mean for my business?

    The DDO will provide an overall strategy for tourism development that will:
generate new business and attract more visitors to the area giving individual business as the to chance to make more money ;
create opportunities for new and existing businesses to grow;
encourage networking and collaboration to create new products to take to the market, thus keeping the destination fresh and competitive;
provide effective and efficient collaborative marketing benefiting the whole region;
provide businesses with high quality market research and information about tourism trends;
represent the views and opinions of the tourist trade on tourism matters;
undertake destination marketing and promotional work;
facilitate working together to grow tourism and tackle common problems;
help identify, attract and promote signature events for the destination;
provide training and tourism business support services;
secure significant additional funding from outside bodies, sponsors and other partners;
make every pound spent go further, work harder and generate greater community benefits;
allow individual operators to concentrate on running their business.

7.What will the DDO mean for this area?

    The DDO will ensure that D & G remains competitive and offers a high quality visitor experience thus producing significant benefits for the local community on a sustainable, long-term basis.

8.Is there any proof that having a DDO makes a difference?

    It is no coincidence that the most successful international tourism destinations all have a DDO. The actual nature and composition of these organisations varies in each case, reflecting local conditions and the particular needs of each destination.
    Invariably they are independent private sector led, but have a strong public sector support and involvement. They tend to be set up as companies with a Board of Directors and a small scale, full time executive staff.
    Research has consistently shown that destinations with DDOs outperform those without such a body. The more effective the DDO, the greater the chance of sustained tourism growth, higher yields, greater market awareness, closer market fit with product, innovation in the business community, higher economic rewards and a quality visitor experience.

9.How will the DDO be organised, managed and funded?

    The D & G DDO now has a Shadow Board to examine how the DDO will be organised, managed and funded.
    Long-term funding is likely to be sourced from a wide range of sources (public and private) and through commercial activities. Income will also be derived from other activities.

10.What will the DDO do that other organisations can’t or are unable to do?

The DDO will complement, and work closely with, community groups and the public sector. The economic health of the area requires that each of these organisations is strong. The DDO has to be non political, inclusive and tourism focused. It exists to drive the visitor economy which will produce benefits for all businesses in the area.
The DDO will work closely with VisitScotland. It will be essential for the DDO to be fully integrated with the work of our national tourist board. In this way the DDO will be able to maximise the various marketing activities and support opportunities developed by VisitScotland.
The DDO will work in partnership with the Dumfries and Galloway Council, SNH, FCS and other public sector bodies and NGOs to ensure a coherent strategic approach to destination development in the region.
The DDO will replace the existing Area Tourism Partnership (ATP). The DDO has been established as a result of the ATP realising that a more proactive, influential, dynamic and business-orientated organisation was needed for Dumfries and Galloway.

11.    How will we know if the DDO is doing a good job?

Measurable targets will be set; targets that are stretching but attainable. They will have real impact on tourism growth and will be relevant throughout the community. The DDO will be accountable and its activities transparent.

12.How can I influence the work of the DDO?

Get involved … there will be different groups representing different industry sectors such as activity providers, the arts sector and golf operators. The DDO will represent all the different interests in our community involved in tourism. It will need your support and your involvement.

13.    How will the public bodies be involved with the DDO?

All of the public bodies have an important role to play in the success of the destination and in supporting the DDO … directly through funding, involvement in the organisation and, especially, in working closely to prioritise their investments and activities to support the tourism effort.

14.In ten years time what difference will having a DDO have made on our economy?

By creating and sustaining this area as Scotland’s most successful, vibrant, well managed leisure short break tourism destination; internationally renowned for its high quality environment, events, service standards and facilities. A place that offers an unrivalled quality of life, for its residents; support for enterprise and innovation; a commitment to developing its people, celebrating local culture and heritage; and ensuring the integrity of the environment which forms the essential fabric upon which the appeal of the area is founded.



Further information about tourism in Dumfries and Galloway is available at www.visitscotland.org/research and statistics. This includes information about occupancy levels in commercial accommodation and visitation to the area’s visitor attractions.