It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, and other parts of Scotland.

VisitScotland also manages a number of quality grading schemes for tourist accommodation and attractions.

The organisation also seeks to work with the tourism industry in Scotland to maintain standards in visitor attractions and accommodation provision.

A number of accommodation providers lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament to return the group to public ownership, arguing that the use of public money to fund the parent company eTourism Ltd was disrupting competition, an assertion which eTourism unconditionally rejected.

[9] On 7 November 2008, it was announced that ownership of VisitScotland.com was to be transferred solely to VisitScotland, with £1.2 million of funds being used to purchase shares from all other shareholders.