THE chief executive of VisitScotland, Malcolm Roughead, is stepping down from the role.
Scotland’s tourism marketing agency announced today that Mr Roughead is set to retire after more than 20 years with the organisation.
He has been chief executive of the publicly funded body since September 2010.
Mr Roughead’s career with VisitScotland has seen the industry face a number of major challenges, including the foot and mouth crisis and the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States. He recently guided the agency through the pandemic, which caused massive upheaval across the tourism industry, and helped promote the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow last summer.
READ: VisitScotland chief urges caution as staycations expected to soar
VisitScotland said Mr Roughead, who received the OBE in 2006, had put responsible tourism at the forefront of the organisation’s work. It became the first national tourism organisation to declare a climate emergency and was on the drafting committee of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism.
Lord Thurso, chair of VisitScotland, said: “Malcolm’s leadership of VisitScotland has been exemplary through some very difficult times. His achievements in promoting Scotland as a destination and a brand, in turn driving Scotland’s economy, have been outstanding.
“I would like to thank him for all that he has contributed over the years, and I wish him the very best for his retirement.”
Mr Roughead said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to have led such a talented team for so long. From the challenges of foot and mouth, 9/11 and Covid, to the opportunities of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, it has been a fascinating journey.
READ MORE: Edinburgh: Scotch whisky attraction wins 'tourism Oscars'
“I have no doubt that the organisation will continue to go from strength to strength and I look forward to supporting the transition over the next few months before my retirement.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here