As the co-founder of the Scottish Excellence Awards, the School Food Awards and the forthcoming Scottish Care Awards, Alex has close to 25 years' experience in the hospitality sector. Alongside establishing CateringScotland.com as the industry's go-to promotional resource, Alex, together with his business partner, Chris Sheppardson, continues to grow the awards programmes into the leading corporate events for the sectors in which they operate. In addition to recognising and rewarding hospitality’s top performers, the awards provide an unrivalled platform from which to promote sponsors and business partners to their target markets, audiences, customers and clients.
A strong believer in the power of networking, Alex founded the Scottish Hospitality Road Trip (SHTRIP) Club in 2017 and over the last decade has guided – sometimes incompetently - hundreds of curious hodophiles around the roads of Scotland and the north of England, exploring hidden locations, roads and routes, and supporting hotels and restaurants during the quieter months.
A committed advocate of ScotHot for more than 20 years, he enjoys the unique buzz and atmosphere of the halls while meeting faces old and new for a coffee and a catch up.
Married with four children and no time for anything, Alex lives in the Scottish Borders (which, coincidentally, have some of the best untapped roads in the country).
* cateringscotland.com * schoolfoodawards.com * scottishcareawards.com * scottishexcellenceawards.com *
What do you think are the greatest opportunities for the Scottish tourism, retail and hospitality industries in 2027?
Scotland has some of the most tempting exploration opportunities in Europe, if not the world. I’ve been running car tours at the rate of three a year for the best part of a decade and we have never covered the same route twice. There are so many untapped – virtually undiscovered – roads and destinations that people either aren’t aware of or aren’t interested in because they aren’t promoted in the same way as the traditional tourist routes.
The main problem is capacity, both on the roads and in hotels and other accommodation. The NC500 has been championed globally since 2015 and consequently it is vastly oversubscribed during the holiday months. Conversely, the SHTRIP Club tours only ever take place in off-peak periods, such as the start of the year, early springtime and late autumn. We therefore avoid traffic jams, bloated accommodation options and peak room rates, which ultimately makes the trips far more entertaining than sitting nose-to-tail all day trying to get to Skye.
With that in mind, I believe there is a significant opportunity to promote Scotland to inquisitive travellers who have more freedom in their diaries; the ones who aren’t bound by school holidays or aren’t so bothered about chasing the most favourable weather conditions. Touring outwith the traditional holiday periods can be wild, unpredictable, hugely liberating and - most importantly from the operators’ perspective - it helps to support hospitality businesses through the quieter months. Furthermore, if you should be lucky enough to witness a decent couple of days when you’re least expecting them, it is the most magical experience to be touring around the glens, roof down, a chill in the air and an open road ahead of you.
Ironically, of course, we don’t want everyone in the world to book up in the off-months, or the entire exercise will be self-defeating! Better to keep it an open secret that Scotland is actually at its best when no one’s here and the midges are dead.
What are you most looking forward to seeing, meeting or attending at ScotHot?
Frankly speaking, everyone and everything! Back when we published Catering Scotland magazine (which we incorporated into CateringScotland.com in 2013), we would take an exhibition stand to demonstrate to delegates, visitors and fellow exhibitors how we could help to promote their people and businesses to a wider client base. However, these days we enjoy wandering around the hallowed halls of the SEC to meet and chat with people over a coffee, lunch or in one of the meeting areas.
Why do you think events like ScotHot are important to the industry?
ScotHot is crucial for the sector, as it allows everyone to meet, chat, buy, sample and sell face-to-face. In this increasingly digital world – even most meetings seem to be on screen these days – I believe it’s never been more important to give people the chance to sit in front of each other and talk as they would have done a few years ago. Aside from the basic human interaction, there is more nuance, body language, humour and opportunity if two or more people meet in person. Plus, food and drink products might look good on a Teams call but how can you taste it through a screen? AI’s not quite there yet.
The culinary competitions, meanwhile, are also infinitely better live. Celebrity chefs might make cookery programmes appeal to audiences from the sanitised surroundings of a TV studio, but nothing beats watching the best talent compete against each other in the heat, stress, fury and real time of a championship cook-off.
All of this means that ScotHot is by far our favourite UK trade show - and because it’s only on for two short days, there is no time to waste or lose. If you want to experience it properly, you have to be there for the duration.
