VisitScotland

VisitScotland, formerly the Scottish Tourist Board (), is a national tourism organisation for Scotland. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, and other parts of Scotland. Among the organisation's tasks is the attraction of visitors to Scotland through advertising and promotional campaigns. VisitScotland also manages a number of quality grading schemes for tourist accommodation and attractions. The organisation also operates the VisitScotland.com website which provides bookings and information service for visitors to Scotland. From 2001 this website was operated as a public-private partnership venture, though this venture (and the website) was brought back into public ownership in 2008. Aims and operation VisitScotland's primary aim is to market Scotland as a tourism destination, which it does through advertising and promotion as well as encouraging press articles on Scotland and what it has to offer the business or consumer visitor. The organisation also seeks to work with the tourism industry in Scotland to maintain standards in visitor attractions and accommodation provision. It does this through a number of specific quality grading schemes. VisitScotland also runs the Thistle Awards, which are awarded to the best tourism businesses each year.