A major shake-up of Scottish tourism's representative body will boost the industry's ability to grow in recessionary times, the leader of industry group, Scottish Tourism Forum, has said.

Ahead of Scottish Tourism Week, the annual series of industry conferences, announcements and constituency tourism engagements for MSPs, STF chair Stephen Leckie told the Sunday Herald that the existing structure was "too fragmented" to adequately represent the grass roots of the £4.2 billion-revenue industry, and was being "refreshed" and renamed as the Scottish Tourism Association.

"The STF claimed to be the voice of the industry but we want the new body to be more truly representative of the 250 local associations around the country. It will include an "alliance of influencers" and will be the working arm of the new Scottish tourism strategy which will be announced in June 2012."

Leckie, who is chief executive of the Crieff Hydro hotel, criticised the previous public-private Tourism Framework for Change strategy, published in 2005 under Labour tourism minister Patricia Ferguson, for setting out a 50% growth target by 2015 without sufficient analysis of how the figure could be achieved.

"Someone dreamed up the figure and everyone else believed it," he said "Maybe it was chosen because it was a nice round number."

In the event, the industry struggled to achieve the necessary annual increments of the 50% even before the recession struck, and has failed to achieve even 5% growth in over half of the allotted time period.

Malcolm Roughhead, chief executive of the Scottish Government's tourism marketing body VisitScotland, told the Scottish Parliament's tourism committee recently that "it is realistic to say the 50% target will not be achieved". However, Scottish ministers remain publicly committed to the target.

Leckie said: "We will be producing a new target figure and that is why we have to make sure that in the three months before the new strategy launch, we produce a meaningful strategy for achieving a target that is based on empirical evidence from the industry. To do that we need them to have more of the industry's 20,000 businesses making a meaningful contribution."

Leckie was sharply critical of some Scottish tourism businesses for continuing to see tourism as a "lifestyle" option, and lacking the impetus to grow, or to join forces with others for the sake of the industry as a whole. He said: "Out of Scotland's 20,000 businesses, over 70% have fewer than nine employees. It's a massive industry made up of small businesses. The question is how do we get them joined up so they fit together. I will not be content until [more than] 50% of the businesses, or of the 250 tourism associations, are members of the new Scottish Tourism Association. Either that or they should join the trade association specific to their sector."

While the new STA, like its predecessor, does not describe itself as a lobbying association, Leckie said that the body's "alliance of influencers" would be articulating the importance of issues such as better WiFi and mobile-phone connectivity, and travel connections to visitors to Scotland, including air route development.

The STA would also be examining the consistency of quality, a perennial problem with the Scottish tourism offering, and the availability of skills and training in tourism management.

Leckie also strongly criticised the disincentivising effect of the UK's 20% VAT rate on tourism business growth, and the withdrawal by the Treasury of the hotel allowance, a tax break that encouraged the industry to invest in industry bricks and mortar.

As well as Leckie, participants in this year's Scottish Tourism Week, to be held in Edinburgh on Tuesday, include Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing, chief executive of Stagecoach Group, Sir Brian Souter, and Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association.

Also next week, Mike Cantlay, chairman of VisitScotland, will give details of the body's new corporate campaign – 'The Winning Years', an opportunity for tourism businesses to maximise on major events including the Year of Creative Scotland, the London Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, as well as the Ryder Cup and Commonwealth Games in 2014.