Sharon Scott

Associate, Northern Ireland, UK

Experience

Sharon has been involved in place and destination management, both as a practitioner and a consultant in Northern Ireland for over 20 years. She brings a unique blend of tourism and urban regeneration experience and a sound understanding of the evolving  NI policy and strategic context, in particular the new  roles of local authorities and local government as they currently relate to tourism in a Post Review of Public Administration (RPA) environment.

Her wider experience includes tourism branding and positioning strategies, product development strategies and plans for sectors such as local food, outdoor activity, arts and craft and the evening economy.  She has also been involved in the introduction of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in Northern Ireland. Sharon has facilitated 7 locations to become Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). Two of the locations, Enniskillen and Cathedral Quarter are tourism-focused BIDs.

Core skills and qualifications

Sharon has a degree in management studies and languages BA (JH) from the University of Leeds.  She holds the Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma and the CIM Diploma in Place Management. She is a member of the Institute of Place Management, the Academy of Urbanism and the Institute of Directors. She sat on the national advisory board of the association of Town and City Management (ATCM) and was appointed as ATCM’s Special Advisor for NI for three years.

Specialisms

Sharon is a specialist in place management, destination management and marketing. She is particularly experienced in planning and delivering private sector stakeholder consultation programmes and securing meaningful engagement and buy-in. She is also experienced in market research, audit and scoping exercises, strategy development and action planning and shaping them to the NI context. This includes scoping additional European, central government and local funding sources, including private sector mechanisms including BIDs.