Simon has worked in communication his entire career.
Qualifying as a journalist in the ’80s, Simon set up his own agency in 1988, aged just 22. Over the next 30 years, Simon’s business and subsequent incarnations managed the communication for clients in the retail, tourism and leisure industries across the U.K.
His primary early focus was in retail: his company won a reputation for delivering successful marketing initiatives for shopping destinations. Through the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, his company worked with more than 100 shopping centres and retail parks across the country as well as working closely on numerous initiatives in the towns and cities where those retail destinations were based.
He also delivered creative services and marketing solutions for a number of UNESCO world heritage sites and leading tourist attractions.
In 2007, Simon sold his agency and created the UK’s first ‘destination marketing’ team, becoming one of the UK’s earliest adopters of social media for commercial use – initially for shopping centres and then for the benefit of town and city destinations.
On this front, he was a mentor on the Portas Pilot project, founded MallToMobile (to support the UK’s shopping centre industry) followed by SOCIALiSTREET (demonstrating how towns and cities could best utilise digital and social media).
In 2012, he set up Destination66 Ltd with his wife, Susan, who brought a wealth of knowledge and many years of experience in the golf and tourism industries.
Three years later, they launched a unique service designed to support the digital and social media planning, delivery, monitoring and evaluation for ‘places’ – towns, cities, rural estates, Business Improvement Districts and tourism destinations.
In 2017, Destination66 created Destination Digital Ltd. In the same year, Simon led research into Scotland’s Digital Towns Programme, the findings of which were published in 2018, making recommendations for the creation of a new BID model – a Digital Improvement District.
Destination Digital were tasked with running a 15-month demonstration project to prove the concept. CuparNow in Fife, Scotland, was the result – initially financed through seed corn funding by the Scottish Government, Digital Scotland & Fife Council.
In December 2019 – after a seven-week long ballot – businesses and organisations across the town gave their support to CuparNow. The model was proved: ‘sustainable delivery of managed, integrated digital and social media communication and services in support of multiple audiences’. It created the world’s first Digital Improvement District with a five-year term (2019-2024).
Funded by businesses and organisations in the town, the results from the pilot were published in a Toolkit to help shape how digital is deployed to support towns across Scotland.
The same information was submitted as evidence for the Scottish Government’s 2020 Towns Review.
In 2021, in response to evolving place-management research, Simon was instrumental in the development of a new model to deliver digital support across urban and rural destinations. This led to the launch of a project built on the deployment of gigabit-capable broadband that has connected homes and businesses across more than 50 square miles of the Scottish Highlands.
The CuparNow project came to an end in 2024: the option existed for another ballot, but Destination Digital opted for a new, unique model – inviting businesses, organisations and groups to subscribe. That launched in 2025 and and is building on their successes – supporting an audience that is more than ten fold the town’s population, across 135 countries.
For the last 18 years, Simon has lived c lose to St Andrews and, during that time, helped to establish the town’s Business Improvement District (2015) and has worked for a variety of businesses in the town, advising on their use of digital communication.
Combined years, he has worked for the Kohler-owned Old Course Hotel, Gold Resort & Spa for more than a decade. The most recent period was an appointment in 2022 for a three-month contract ahead of the 2022 Open – extended to two-and-a-half-years. His work saw a consolidation of social media channels to better engage and grow audiences at home and abroad. His work also included writing the resort’s award submissions, resulting in a series of high-profile accolades.
Simon has also worked with East Neuk Estates, a collection of farms and estates close to St Andrews. Henry Cheape of Balgove Larder reached out as a result of work Simon has delivered in support of the East Neuk Estates. Voluntarily, he ran the social media channels for PollyAnne in the World’s Toughest Row (2023-24) – a 10-month campaign that saw Henry Cheape become the fastest Scot to row the Atlantic solo, raising £100,000+ for charities.
In addition to his work in digital media, Simon also undertakes regular freelance work, most recently writing features for Coast magazine. As examples: Move to St Andrews, Move to Nairn and reviews of Mingary Castle (Ardnamurchan) and the private island of Carna.
A regular commentator on media channels, Simon advises place managers (and their key partners) on how they can best use the collaboration of available technology to support their destinations’ businesses, residents, visitors and community stakeholders.
Email: simon@destination66.co.uk
Phone: 07971581966