Kerry, formerly regional business tourism manager in Central Scotland, will be responsible for increasing convention business in Scotland from the UK and overseas. She replaces Catriona Anderson who left VisitScotland in April to go freelance.

Kerry started working for the organisation in 2001 when she was a visitor services advisor in the local Visitor information Centre while studying Business Tourism at the University of Abertay.  She later became assistant business tourism manager in the central Scotland region, before being promoted to regional tourism manager in 2007. 

She said: “I love promoting Scotland to national and international clients through our range of events from Scotland Means Business and our Ambassador programme, to exhibitions such as IMEX.  We genuinely have some of the best venues in the world and, with the country’s history of academic and research excellence, it is an attractive destination for associations.”

Almost a quarter – 23 per cent - of all international association conferences held in the UK are hosted by Scotland.  Research from VisitBritain shows that Edinburgh and Glasgow are both in the top three most price-competitive European destinations for professional association