Creating the Observatory
The Scottish Tourism Observatory project was set up with initial funding provided by the Scottish Government. The project team had several target outputs which were successfully delivered in the initial phase of the project. These included:
- Research, consultation and engagement with stakeholders to understand data needs
- Data discovery: identifying relevant data that is available and confirming critical gaps where that doesn’t meet data needs
- Creation of the Scottish Tourism Observatory: including the design and build of the website and the supporting data pipelines and processes which enable the creation of the analyses and visualisations
The future plans for the Observatory are guided by our stakeholder research and continuing engagement to help us understand data needs.
Developing the website and data pipeline
We have revised the structure of the website to make data easier to find, as well as refreshing it visually.
We are also continuing to build and refine our data pipeline - the "back-end" of the Observatory which gathers and processes the data, making it ready for analysis and visualisation.
Finding and adding new data
The website currently uses existing data which has been analysed and made available in various ways. This "open data" is able to be used and shared as necessary.
We are continuing to seek out and obtain further sources of existing data to help meet stakeholders' data needs. This includes reaching out to other organisations which have data, so we can combine resources to build a rich picture of tourism in Scotland.
Our target list includes data for sectors including events and festivals, transport, activities, attractions, food and drink and responsible tourism. Possibilities to include data from commercial sources will also be investigated.
Data challenge projects
We are also working on several large scale data projects, aiming to solve some of the key challenges and gaps in data for tourism in Scotland. For each of these projects, the process is the same -
- consultation with stakeholders to better understand their needs
- scoping and planning the project
- investigating solutions
Due to resource constraints and the challenges these projects present, they will be multi-year projects, but with regular outputs and updates. These projects are -
More regional data - We know robust data at a regional level is a crucial requirement for many, but one not fully being met by available sources. We are regularly creating new analyses and visualisations which provide a regional view, and this will continue to be a priority.
Forecasting to help planning and decisions - Forward-looking data, such as forecasts, is also a key demand. This project will investigate possible methodologies.
Mapping tourism assets - This project aims to build a clearer picture of tourism assets across the country using data.
Working together
In all of the plans to develop the Observatory, we hope to work collaboratively with stakeholders across the industry and around the country. This could involve providing data and analyses for the website, sharing experiences of using data in the Community section or collaborating on the challenge projects.
Please email the team at STO@visitscotland.com if you would like to be involved.