Tourism and Hospitality Industry Leadership Group minutes: October 2024

Attendees and apologies

ILG members attending

• Aileen Crawford*, Glasgow Life
• Stephen Duncan* (online), Historic Environment Scotland
• Anna Miller (online), Highlands and Islands Enterprise
• Joss Croft*, UKInbound
• Barbara Smith*, Industry expert
• Kelly Johnstone*, The Springboard Charity
• Benjamin Carey*, Carey Tourism
• Lawrence Durden, Skills Development Scotland
• Calum Ross*, Loch Melfort Hotel
• Marc Crothall, Scottish Tourism Alliance
• Carron Tobin*, Rural Dimensions
• Rob Dickson, VisitScotland
• Chris Greenwood*, Moffat Centre
• Gary Cox, Scottish Government
• Debbie Johnson*, IHG Hotels and Resorts
• Mark Rowley South of Scotland Enterprise
• Richard Lochhead (online), Minister for Business

Attending

• Beth Thoms, VisitScotland
• John Coghill, Scottish Government
• Caroline Cantin, Scottish Government

Apologies

• Carolyn Churchill, VisitScotland
• Kevin Fallon, Scottish Government
• Judy Rae*, OnFife Cultural Trust
• Paul McCafferty, Scottish Enterprise
• Karen Jackson, South of Scotland Enterprise
• James Fowlie, COSLA
• Derek Shaw, Scottish Enterprise
• Chris Brodie, Skills Development Scotland
• Kat Brogan*, Mercat Tours
• Joshua Ryan-Saha*, Travel Tech Scotland
• Andrea Nicholas*, Green Tourism
• Bryan Simpson, Unite the Union

*Industry Leadership Group (ILG) industry members attend in an individual capacity and do not represent a business or organisation

Items and actions

Key notes and actions:

Co-Chair welcome   
Welcome:
Marc Crothall (MC) offered a warm welcome back to the Minister and that it was good to see him engaged in lots of activity and engagements since his return.
MC also welcomed Gary Cox (GC) who has joined Scottish Government as Deputy Director, Business Strategy & Tourism – joining at midday due to morning appointment 
MC noted thanks to Aileen Crawford (AC) for supporting with the venue today
apologies noted as above
MC outlined the agenda for today’s meeting
August THILG Meeting  
Joss Croft (JC) raised that the company referenced in the minutes as Fox should be Vox 
aside from this, no amends, and August meeting minutes approved by the group
Updates / actions from August meeting:
Net Zero subgroup to pick up with Scottish Government analysts regarding Climate Xchange on next steps for the mission – this is in progress
ILG comms to follow up with mission leads regarding mission messaging – done and the deck will be circulated.
Minister remarks 
Richard Lochead (RL) thanked group for work on missions and encouraged them to keep engaging on these focus areas. He acknowledged that rising costs, challenging geopolitical climate and regulations are challenges for the sector.
RL commented on the recent Thistle Awards which he had attended, remarking on some great businesses and projects. He highlighted that investment is important and new investments show some health in the sector.
RL also congratulated MC on reappointment as Co-Chair of the group.
MC thanked the Minister for his remarks and reflected that the Programme for Government (PfG) development had been very productive and engaged with business. MC referenced the levy for cruise element of the PfG and mentioned the levy guidance being published in next 2 days and there would be more work on the guidance for businesses. 
Membership and Co-option update
MC thanked everyone for bringing forward ideas for co-option and updated that a couple of individuals were approached but couldn’t join. Reminder that the main purpose for co-option was bringing in business owner/operator and net zero experience for a defined period.
MC noted he is delighted that we have co-opted Victoria Erasmus who was suggested as an exceptional addition by several members. She can’t join us today, but we will bring her up to speed.
we also plan to bring forward recruitment to earlier in 2025 – partly given volume of quality recommendations of individuals made by the ILG and to ensure we fill gaps in the group.
SO2030 Tracker update 
Scottish Government and VisitScotland analysts joined the meeting to present an update on the Tracker and obtain approval on next steps. Key points highlighted were:
•    recap of project scope and outputs – three outputs to serve distinct purposes: 
o    latest tourism intel; latest data and intelligence on sector performance
o    SO2030 Tracker; framework of indicators to track progress against SO2030 strategic priorities and outcomes.
o    ILG Mission KPI measurement; set of indicators to track the outputs of the game changing actions set out in the Mission Documents. 
The SO2030 Tracker needs robust criteria for indicators; to ensure high quality and rigorous indicator set. Indicators must be: measurable, relevant, reliable, timely, recurrent, balanced, available and cover national level. 
The SO2030 Tracker has indicators mapped to each SO2030 strategic priority, with detail set out on the slides.  
The SO2030 Tracker will likely be published on visitscotland.org with links from Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA), Scottish Government (SG) and other partner sites. The VisitScotland (VS) design team is engaged on this to create something in keeping with the SO2030 Brand.
proposed solutions for filling gaps in the current tracker:
o    ‘Thriving Places’ (Community) – suggestions made to date by the ILG have all been explored and incorporated here possible i.e. where the indicator meets the criteria. A proposed approach to fill the gap is to add questions to the Scottish Household Survey. 
o    ‘Thriving Places’ (Net Zero) – as part of driving the Net Zero mission, and to fill the gap in measurement, proposed approach is to commission research to estimate greenhouse gas emissions through ClimateXChange.
Mission KPI work to be done early 2025, with SO2030 Tracker work kept under review.
A discussion followed with both general questions and specific points raised in relation to the Household Survey questions:
MC asked if the analysts engaged with other ILGs
Raymond MacIntyre (RM) responded that they had not done so, but internationally this is a standout approached
Rob Dickson (RD) offered thanks to the analysts for joining this together, this allows us to assess progress moving forward and points way ahead. The influencing element on the household survey is a great success
RL pointed out that the quicker data comes forward is ideal as this can influence decisions for budgets in future 
Benjamin Carey (BC) commented it was good to see how much has been done and good to see it moving forward. Encouraging to see logic modelling as this helps address the attribution question. Regarding the household survey questions, the phrasing of facilities seemed odd 
Calum Ross (CR) requested a reference to hospitality be added into a question, to reflect the important role of hospitality in communities. Other members of the group agreed with the addition of hospitality. CR asked about what the framing of questions is i.e. Y/N answer or otherwise?
RM responded that the options are strongly agree/agree/disagree etc.
consensus from the group that Q3 should be tweaked slightly.
RD and RM both reminded the group that Ipsos is the expert on question setting so will be able to advise
Carron Tobin (CT) remarked that it is important to check what others are doing
Caroline Macfarlane (CM) confirmed that VisitBritain don’t do anything similar
AC updated that Glasgow previously had tourism questions added to the household survey for the city; AC to share these with Analysts
CT asked when the survey is done in the calendar year as this may influence the responses
MC updated that the Minister will now depart, thanks to RL for his time and contribution
Action: Beth Thoms (BT)/analysts to share questions for input from group members by 11 October. Analysts to finalise question set, working with Ipsos for best practice. 
GC joined the group and BC asked about Transport Scotland data; GC confirmed this should be accessible for the group.
Fair Work inquiry discussion 
MC updated that the work of the independent Fair Work inquiry has concluded, and recommendations published last week. THILG have been placed in a central role in the recommendations. Given the prominence which the THILG has been given in the recommendations, the Scottish Government wishes to comprehensively consult with the THILG when preparing its formal response
each table discussed the recommendations in turn and views were captured in grids supplied.
Action: SG to confirm next steps to the group in due course 
Deep Dive into the Proud and Valued People Mission
Lawrence Durden (LD) presented slides covering some key updates in relation to skills and people in the sector
SDS figure is 196,600 people working in tourism – this is increasing 
rarely drops below 7% in any region
challenge of recruitment especially kitchen / chefs
micro business challenges – challenge to engage 
MC points raised:
employee turnover high – but do we have a a figure
figure of businesses – need to be consistent as the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) figure differs from the figure used by STA and others – may be to do with data source
figure of inactivity
Action: BT to follow up re. data source / figure for people working in tourism 
Kelly Johnstone (KJ) updated on progress in relation to some of the Mission actions:
funding via Robertson trust has turned what was a staff induction toolkit into a website platform for employers and employees including training and information. Work is taking place in the background with skills group as a sounding board.
agreed date for go live is January
next phase of this is to move the website forward and combine with businesses 
roadshows are a possible idea but question of resource – what’s already happening / possibility of skills group involved in this
serving the future – looking at workforce 
Menti survey 
a survey was carried out with thoughts captured from members in relation to the prioritisation of actions and how members could support these.
the feedback was captured and will inform consideration of how to take the actions forward.
Stakeholder mapping
The group undertook a small group exercise to map the key stakeholders in relation to each mission game changing action.
The feedback was captured and will inform consideration of which stakeholders are a priority for engagement.
Symposium Reflections
MC introduced a video from Deputy First Minister (DFM) Kate Forbes MSP which had been shown at the ILG Symposium on 24th September.
MC invited CR to give some reflections on the symposium. 
CR summed up the day and his views:
on the day there was quite a strong tourism focus and so others learnt a lot from us, probably more than we learnt from others. However, there were interesting takeaways from other sectors
tourism is here message which was great to get out there especially in front of the political audience of ministers and officials
inspired by Nora Senior’s comments in relation to:
o    inspiring leadership 
o    get on with plans
o    don’t be risk averse
o    embrace technology
two of four objectives met in relation to the programme of the day
Wider group discussion followed:
AC asked whether ILGs would remain a feature moving forward, in light of comments made about a review of ILGs
MC said there were challenges in relation to the different groups and role they play Follow up meeting in November of Co-chair group – so this may have outcomes for the ILGs
KJ suggested at a future symposium there could be breakout groups to do more knowledge exchange – conversations / networks
CR noted the interesting comment from DFM in relation to framing asks and offering help to SG
BC noted disappointment and a desire to engage more with other ILGs
MC said that the symposium was intended as a starting point to create linkages between ILGs and recognise synergies
RD commented that there were lots of good linkages; we have a strategy and it’s taking us in right direction 
Rural Delivery Plan
MC welcomed Dr Kate Anderson, Team Leader Rural Delivery Policy. KA delivered a presentation on key Scottish Government strategies and investments in tourism and hospitality in rural Scotland with the following points made:
SG has a commitment to delivering a plan considering how all parts are delivering for Scotland’s rural communities
ministerial decision to reduce scope of plan – islands separate as these are dealt with through the islands plan
rural can be siloed and the plan is about trying to bring together everything that’s happening across policy areas
a key aim is to improve how policy teams understand rural needs with the objective of improving delivery for rural needs
the rural lens toolkit has been developed working with policy teams to make sure it’s having impact on policy design that is hoped
developing key performance indicators for rural space - data and rurality specificity can be a challenge
there is a mixed but positive picture – opportunities to plug into  
Discussion on monitoring performance and existing data.
MC pointed out that in the key strategies list, SO2030 strategy to be included – this received 3.5k contributions spanning the whole of Scotland. STPS is in there. There is a potential opportunity for analysts to feed in
CT highlighted the role of communities in delivering rural visitor services and these need to be reflected within this process.
Chris Greenwood (CG) highlighted that ONS work on value of natural assets
Mark Rowley (MR) asked where does food and drink sit within this and KA confirmed this is in the plan
CR highlighted that hospitality venues are key to delivery in rural areas.
Action: BT and SG to collate follow-up with Rural team – in particular Analyst work in relation to data and insights.
ILG Missions: look ahead
RD and BT presented a short update in relation to the Missions:
RD mentioned that the Missions remain relevant but must continue to evolve, he also acknowledged the challenging public sector fiscal landscape and that engagement with stakeholders should progress and continue to build support and action. 
BT updated that the priority is now assessing which key stakeholders (priorities) are for each mission area – the top five – and identifying the key policy areas of SG for missions to engage with. These can then be factored into future plans and meetings for next year
BT updated on housekeeping points in relation to expenses and ‘sign off’ process. 
Comments followed from the group:
AC asked whether we could look at the RAG rating in the SO2030 tracker presented earlier in the meeting – e.g. workshop session on the red and ambers to ensure the ILG is monitoring where there are challenges 
CR keen that the sign off / approval process of the ILG ensures documents recirculated to the full group to make sure comments are captured fully. Could we also ask for suggestions of contributors internationally – to show the ILG is looking outwardly.
CT made a point in relation to the slides and wanted to see the third sector referenced
Action: BT to follow up with ask of Mission leads to submit their priority suggestions, to inform future engagement and meeting plan
AOB 
no any other business highlighted from members