The Internationalisation Story

The phenomenal growth of tourism over the past half century has propelled the industry firmly into the top flight of international businesses. Subject to annual fluctuations, tourism produces business trade volumes that typically rival or exceed oil exports, food and car sales.

Assuredly, then, the internationalisation of tourism makes the marketplace ripe with opportunities and challenges. How the Highlands and Islands responds and takes advantage of this booming market is vital to its continuing success.

Not least among these new challenges to be addressed are quality standards, visitor experience and sustainability. For it’s the natural environment, the landscape and scenery that give the Highlands and Islands its strongest branding. Capitalising on the internationalisation of tourism must therefore not be at the expense of those things for which we are best known and which give us our strong appeal.

Internationalisation is consequently a central plank of the HIE network’s tourism strategy. Emphasis has been placed on raising quality standards, and also ensuring that tourism is planned and developed to meet the new and future requirements of an ever more discerning market.

Rising to the challenges is not, however, something that HIE can - or would want to – drive on its own. It has been readily acknowledged on all sides that only be entering into partnerships with tourist industry organisations and the private sector can effective results be guaranteed and a bright future mapped out. Improvements in standards clearly cannot be imposed on tourism stakeholders. The HIE network’s responsibility is, then, one of playing a leading role in organising such partnerships and engaging with tourism operators and member organisations to maximise the benefits and minimise the threats.

Tackling internationalisation, though, is not something we can do solely in our own backyard. As well as being responsive and pro-active at a local level, there must also be co-operative action taken at an international level in the form of standardisation of quality measures and benchmarks. By moving towards alignment of such standards and uniformity of systems, greater transparency in the marketplace can be achieved and competition and trade volumes increased. Creating the ability, in other words, of the consumer to compare apples with apples and make informed purchasing decisions. Comparability and uniformity in back and front office operations can only help to bolster consumer confidence.

It should be made clear that uniformity does not imply standardisation of the tourism product itself. This would be self defeating. For when you are in a large herd, you want to stand out and be easily distinguishable from the crowd. What tourism operators should focus on in this age of global long haul travel is ensuring visitors receive top quality world-class service and standards. What no-one can deny is that positive experiences generate repeat business!