ASVA E-ZINE

Welcome to the April 2024 edition of the ASVA E-Zine

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What’s in a month?

May 2019

A common question I am asked by ASVA members when I meet them on my travels is ‘So, what have you been up to this month?’ It is a legitimate question, as effectively it is our members that pay for me to undertake the role of CEO of ASVA, so it is quite right that they know how I am spending my time and what I am doing for the betterment of the attractions sector in Scotland. I would therefore like to take the opportunity to use this month’s e-zine column to give a snapshot of the last month, sharing some of the activity that I have been involved in as CEO of ASVA.

In my role as CEO, I have made it my mission to get out of the office as much as possible to spend time with ASVA members, visiting ASVA member sites. The insights I receive when visiting our members are hugely valuable and help me keep my finger on the pulse of what is happening in our sector, as well as identifying what ASVA can do to support the industry.

April was a busy month for meeting members. I had the pleasure of meeting the new CEO of the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick, Susan Davies, hearing about the new strategy for the organisation and viewing the changes made to the visitor experience over the last few months (with many more exciting changes to come soon). It was a month of meeting new CEOs, as I also met with Caroline Mathers, the new CEO of the Stirling Smith Art Gallery in Stirling.

Whilst visiting, I had the opportunity to see the newly refurbished gallery and exhibition, as well as hear about some of the successes the Gallery has enjoyed since Caroline started there. I also had the opportunity to meet with a more established member of the ASVA family, Ben Mardall of the Helix Visitor Centre in Falkirk, to touch base on a number of matters, including the successes enjoyed at the Helix with staff engagement, as well as to share some thoughts on collaborations between ASVA and Wild Scotland, in Ben’s role as Wild Scotland Chair.

In the middle of the month I had the pleasure of paying a visit to Hopetoun House in South Queensferry. This was, however, more than just a fact finding, drop in visit. I was delighted to be invited along to speak at their pre-season briefing day, with over 50 staff and volunteers present. My presentation concerned the importance of delivering high quality visitor experiences, with hints and tips shared from ASVA’s hugely successful Exceeding Visitor Expectations programme. It was great to meet so many of the team and see how enthusiastic they were about Hopetoun House and visitor engagement.

Speaking of Exceeding Visitor Expectations (EVE), it was a busy month for me in terms of delivery of the EVE programme. As a fully qualified EVE trainer, I am fortunate that I am able to engage with our members and others in the industry through delivering the EVE programme.

Last month, I found myself in the Outer Hebrides, delivering the EVE programme to a group of businesses in Harris and Benbecula. All the businesses attending were keen to learn more about not only how to deliver great experiences, but how they can be ambassadors for tourism in the Outer Hebrides. I then followed this up by delivering another EVE programme for Ian Macleod Distillers, where I had the pleasure of meeting a hugely engaging group of guides from Glengoyne and Edinburgh Gin Distilleries. To be honest I think I learned more about customer service from the guides than they did from the course!

April also saw me attend VisitScotland Expo, the premier B2B travel trade event in Scotland, which was hugely valuable as it gave me the opportunity to see and converse with so many visitor attraction colleagues in one place. I also had the pleasure of representing ASVA at the opening of the fantastic new Videogames Exhibition at the V&A Dundee, which was also a great opportunity to meet with current members and prospective new members in the Tayside region.

I topped and tailed the month with stakeholder meetings, firstly with the quarterly Tourism Skills Group Meeting, facilitated by Skills Development Scotland. With Brexit inevitably high on the agenda, the group discussed implications of a no deal Brexit and what support was out there for businesses (for more info, I would recommend you visit prepareforbrexit.scot).

My second meeting was with representatives from the Scottish Government, with discussions taking place on how we can further enhance ASVA’s strong and effective working relationship with the Scottish Government.

By no means was this the be all and end all of the month’s ASVA activity, with the team working hard on membership renewals and much planning undertaken for future events, such as our annual Marketing Workshop in May, a new Digital Development Workshop later in the year and, of course, our showpiece event, the annual ASVA Conference taking place on 7th and 8th November at Crieff Hydro this year. Watch this space for much more information!

I hope this snapshot was of interest. If it was, please let me know and I will be happy to provide this information on a regular basis. Please also get in touch with me at [email protected] if you would like to discuss any element of ASVA engagement or would like to meet with me.

Gordon Morrison
CEO, ASVA

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