Case studies: Visitor services manager: Donna

Donna completed a BSc in Consumer Product Management and now works as a visitor services manager for Visit Scotland.

I didn’t actually choose tourism as I started off my career in retail, which was more immediately related to my degree. My degree course concentrated on retail management, and the basics of management were certainly relevant in securing my position as there’s a lot of overlap with my role in visitor services.

When studying for my degree, I think the key skills I developed were how to deal with people, listening, managing people, interviewing skills and marketing. My degree course was quite varied and covered a wide range of things and I also completed a nine-month work placement as a supervisor within the retail sector, which gave me a great deal of practical experience.

I was working within the retail sector as a department manager for a very large and well-known retailer, but I wanted a change, and as I’d previously worked in tourism whilst at university, I thought I’d go back to that and I applied for a position as a customer services supervisor within VisitScotland. I think I got the job mostly because of my line management experience.

I was in that job for almost a year when the post of visitor services manager came up and I applied and got it. One of the main reasons I was successful was the previous experience I brought from working as a department manager in retail. I think that previous experience within the working environment is key - a good knowledge of staff management and how to handle people and working under pressure.

I’ve been in my job for a year and a half, so now I’m in a position to say that I’ve found my feet. The role has changed in that I no longer directly manage members of staff - 34 of them at the height of the season - and I’ve gained an additional two information centres. I’m responsible for a total of 12 centres, four of them open all year. I still do a great deal of administration and I’m more involved with the training of new staff and the direct reports.

I’m responsible for numerous tasks - probably too many to list - but some of the key ones are 

• daily administration;
• authorising stock orders;
• authorising invoices for payment;
• completing payroll;
• dealing with recruitment, which could be for the seasonal information centres or the all-year centres.

I deal with day-to-day issues that arise, which may mean contacting facilities and IT support teams if the phone lines are down, for example, or if the centre can’t open due to very cold weather, which can lead to the door being frozen shut! Unexpected incidents aren’t always pleasant. There was a problem with the toilet in one TIC, for example, and I had to deal with staff who were quite irate.

I deal with the performance management of all staff and hold monthly meetings with my teams to update them on what’s been happening during the month. Within my remit, I’m required to visit each of my centres once a month and it’s great to get out of the office and see some more of Scotland.

I don’t have any definite plans for the future because I’m relatively new to this role and I feel that I need to develop myself and my team to a high level before looking at moving on in to a new position.