Question 1

Why have you divided the South into these areas?

Accepted Answer

We are keen to be as locally-led as possible but also need to be pragmatic if we are to succeed.  We have 2 staff members working on this. We feel that the areas we have selected are a sensible number, as it means we can meet in person twice yearly and offer meaningful support and representation

Question 2

Why have you chosen these geographical areas?

Accepted Answer

We recognise that there are pros and cons to dividing the region up in different ways. While we’re keen to try our best to get this right, we recognise that spending our limited time discussing different geographical permutations wouldn’t actually help any businesses on the ground.

Question 3

Why are these meetings happening in the summer when businesses are at their busiest?

Accepted Answer

We absolutely recognise that having this first meeting in the summer is far from ideal.  However, we think it's crucially important that businesses have the opportunity to come together and feed into the development of the South of Scotland Responsible Tourism Strategy.

Question 4

How will you be working with our local exisiting tourism group?

Accepted Answer

We absolutely don’t want to duplicate or compete with local groups, so we are reaching out to all local groups we know of before contacting local businesses.  We want to work with local groups in the design, scheduling and delivery of these meetings and we want to be as supportive and flexible.

Question 5

How will local businesses feed into plans to extend the visitor season?

Accepted Answer

There’s no point bringing lots of new visitors in, off-season, if there isn’t product for them. Rather, we need to listen well to local businesses, to understand what support and local collaboration would help them profitably stay open for more of the year.

Question 6

Is this a one-off local meeting?

Accepted Answer

We absolutely hope not.  The SSDA is committed to being locally-engaged and locally-led and this will not change. As long as there is demonstrable business support and impact, we will continue to meet groups locally every six months.

Question 7

What will you do between meetings?

Accepted Answer

We want to use the meetings to identify clear priorities and plans, agreeing clear actions for each of us to take forward, so we can work together to deliver against these priorities between meetings. We will have the greatest success where local meetings identify a small number of local priorities.

Question 8

Is this duplicating what other groups are doing, i.e Council, SoSE, SCOTO, Borderlands, Visit Scot

Accepted Answer

No. We are working with all other groups and agencies to ensure we are not duplicating what others are doing. Partnership and collaboration are key to us.  We are specifically working with SoSE, the Place Planning teams and others to ensure that our dates of local meetings don’t clash.

Question 9

Are these meetings only open to SSDA members?

Accepted Answer

No.  The meetings are open to any local business engaged in any aspect of the visitor economy, including hospitality.  We also welcome community representatives.  We want to make the SSDA the most open, inclusive, ‘big tent’ DMMO in Scotland, so we really encourage everyone to join our community.

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