Dubai Tourism UK and Ireland director Ian Scott is to leave after eight years at the tourist board.
He joins AMG Ltd, the parent company of AMG Representation, in the new role of group managing director at the end of March.
Scott will be tasked with spearheading the group’s growth strategy across the its three core businesses including AMG Representation, a sales representation and tourism marketing agency, Mybookingrewards.com, an online agent incentive and booking rewards programme, and Exposure4, a video content creation and distribution business.
During his tenure at Dubai Tourism, Scott was instrumental in increasing UK visitor numbers from 750,000 in 2007 to nearly 1.2 million in 2015, maintaining its position as the destination’s third source market. He is credited with helping to improve the profile of Dubai in the industry.
He said: “I think in eight years at Dubai Tourism we have achieved an enormous amount. To get more than one million UK visitors to Dubai was always a bit of a target for me and we achieved that this year for the first time.
“It’s my choice to leave; it’s time for me to do something different and this is a good opportunity for me to take on a more strategic role.”
He described the AMG Ltd’s businesses as “relatively siloed” and said there were opportunities to work more closely together and grow the businesses.
“There is no single role across the three businesses [until now] and there are potential opportunities for these businesses to work together. I will look at the partners we have got and ensure we deliver commercially on every partner we have and win new businesses and grow the portfolio,” he said.
No replacement has been announced as yet at Dubai Tourism. Marc Bennett, senior vice president, international operations, Dubai Tourism, said: “We want to thank Ian for his commitment and hard work over the last eight years and wish him well in future. We will also ensure we continue to maintain our strong presence in the UK. We will look to strengthen the UK team and keep the industry informed in due course.”
Prior to his role at Dubai Tourism, Scott held roles at First Choice Holidays, Disneyland Paris, and Eos Airlines. He is also a board director of the Institute of Travel and Tourism.
He said: “I’m very excited to be joining such a diverse organisation in a role where I can be instrumental in its growth strategy.
“AMG is already responsible for numerous tourist boards, hotels and DMCs throughout the Caribbean, Asia and Africa so, by drawing on my Dubai experience, the addition of a Middle East division is likely to be an early priority. “
AMG already represents a number of tourist boards, hotels and destination management companies, and the Middle East is likely to added as a new division under Scott’s management.
Nadine Rankin, managing partner of AMG Representation, said: “Our goal is to maintain our rich and varied client portfolio as well as to develop sound business strategies to enable us to grow into new and exciting areas”.
Darren Pearson, managing partner heading up MBR and Exposure4, added: “Ian’s proven strategic experience in developing multi-channel marketing activities and his ability to build strong relationships with key tourism industry stakeholders means he is perfectly placed to help us achieve our Group’s growth plans”.
Scott hopes to remain an ITT board director. He represents tourist boards in his current role. His role is to be discussed at an ITT board meeting next week.