Digital Tourism Specialist Advice Programme

What is it?

Fully integrating digital into your tourism SME can open access to new markets, help you develop new products, lead to advanced business models and provide access into the wider digital tourism ecosystem.

SMEs who successfully embrace digital can expect to become more productive and efficient, freeing up time to focus on broader strategic tasks. However, recent evidence suggests SMEs, and tourism focussed SMEs in particular, are lagging behind in the digital transition, with many traditional tourism businesses struggling to understand the opportunities or reap the benefits of higher-level digital technologies.

Through the Northern Innovation Hub, HIE can provide between 2-4 days one-to-one specialist digital advice for tourism SMEs. This service provides access to a pool of digital experts across several disciplines that will help you understand options, make good decisions, and develop and exploit digital opportunities that support growth.

The service is flexible and can be tailored depending on what you need support with and the stage you’re at in the process.

Areas we can support you with include:

• Mobile technology
• Cloud computing
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data analytics
• Blockchain and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

What does it cost?

This is a free service subject to subsidy control assessment and, if applicable, your available De Minimis allowance.

Am I eligible?

Support is available for tourism businesses who are based within the Highland Council area only. This is a stipulation of funding received through the Inverness-Highland City Region Deal. 

If you are based out with the Highland Council area, you may be eligible for support through our other specialist advice programmes.  

This support is targeting advanced levels of digitalisation therefore businesses must already have a good working knowledge of basic digital tools and platforms, for example a functional website with online booking (if applicable), active social media profiles with an ongoing social media strategy, use of booking platforms and/or various software to manage customer interactions with some level of automation. If you are looking for support with digital basics in the first instance, Business Gateway's DigitalBoost programme can help. 

How do I find out more and apply?

To make an enquiry about this service, please complete the short form below and one of our team will get back to you.