It’s more essential than ever that we have a cohesive tourism plan which will ensure visitors to our country are offered first class service and the best of experiences.
Colin Donald’s kept his most scathing comments for the controversial quango VisitScotland which was set up by the last Scottish executive in 2001. It received £43 million in 2007-8 of taxpayers money to promote Scotland and aside from the mass of glossy brochures sent out to their clients, there is little benefit to the small business. Guesthouses, along with bed and breakfasts and self catering establishments, are the bread and butter of the tourism industry and are treated with disdain by VisitScotland, whose main aim is ensuring these people pay up their excessive annual fees.
This article highlights the fact that small and large businesses in areas such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and St Andrews are working on their own DMOs (destination management organisations), complete with their own websites and marketing materials. VisitScotland, including its website, has been an expensive and badly managed quango and therefore it will be losing a large slice of their income.
Peter Lederer (managing director of Gleneagles) claims to be at a loss as to why so many disparate tourism areas are voting with their feet by establishing local identities, and ruefully reflects on his inability to persuade Shetlanders and others to stay under the VisitScotland umbrella.
He insists that marketing is best left to the professionals at VisitScotland's Leith HQ. "I'm all for DMOs if the M stands for management, rather than marketing," said Lederer. "If we got it right, they are very good ways for improving links between businesses, for example for promoting cross-selling. Anything that makes it easier for the consumer to buy is positive. "However, for marketing campaigns, it is better to pool the resource together, and not divide down to the smallest common denominator.”
Too late Mr Lederer, you’ve had 8 years to make changes and you've had to be hauled through hot coals to even start. This is the result of the incompetence of VisitScotland, nothing more nothing less. Accommodation providers will possibly stay with the Quality Assurance branch of VisitScotland as they provide the national grading of establishments but personally I would prefer if the Automobile Association was able to resurrect its grading system, which was more efficient and less costly to businesses.
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5 comments:
Devils Advocate says:
I don't know what the figures are but I would imagine tourism to Scotland is in decline. As Scotland becomes more like everywhere else what would visitors come for?
The history?
I once did a tour of Scotland and visited many historic sites. At almost everyone I was greeted by a wee English wifie who knew hee haw about Scottish history but demanded, what seemed like, an excessive amount of money. It was most disappointing.
To soak up the culture?
At almost every restaurant and pub I went to I was served by Australians.
The food?
You can get McDonalds and Burger King everywhere these days - and without exception - cheaper than in Scotland.
The Weather?
Aye - right!
I found Scotland to be expensive, the food poor quality, the towns tired and grey - their centres largely abandoned, the countryside dissected by busy roads impossible to wander down, and the culture largely replaced by multiculture just like most of the English speaking world.
There was nothing special about it as a destination, except that it had an air of tiredness, and a lack of enthusiasm - no joie de vivre. Major tourist attractions were notable for their amateurish presentation of what should have been dramatic high points in a tourist's itinerary,
Most of the visitors to Scotland that I know will not go back. They will instead head to Mexico, Florida, Hawaii, or somewhere else that is warm, has beaches, and great nightlife. North Americans are unimpressed by Scotland or Europe these days. They seem to feel they're past their best by dates.
Well scunnert, where will I start in defence of Scotland, my little corner anyway.
Part of the problem is the likes of Lederer who, over the years, has tried hard to do away with the image of Scotland being castles, glens, lochs, mist, mountains, music and friendly natives. I remember I had a run-in with him once on the Lesley Riddoch show about his views and the fact that he wanted to make Scotland attractive to the young. My argument was the young don't spend; they sleep on floors, drink cheap beer and use McDonalds.
It's true in cities that it's foreign labour in this industry and good food is expensive unless you know where to go. A good bed and breakfast will provide advice about where to eat and visit.
The towns are tired, you're right but here the roads are much the same as they were in my childhood, although the A93 to Braemar has certainly improved and the roads are in reasonable shape.
The two main attractions here have upped their game in the past few years and now provide what I consider to be first class destinations for visitors. They are Glamis Castle and Scone Palace.
People visit this area for many reasons and are usually well prepared for the weather having done research beforehand. There's no nightlife here but the main age group of summer visitors is 50+.
Many of the overseas visitors are diaspora and have a longing for contact with the indigenous population so I suppose that's why so many stay in smaller accommodation establishments.
I have to agree with you about our lack of common sense when it comes down to 'the window on Scotland' at some places. VisitScotland used to have their main switchboard manned by three Australians and one English woman. How's that for selling Scotland? I certainly wouldn't expect a Scotsman to book me in at a Tokyo hotel.
15-20 years ago many southern English came up here and bought up big old houses thinking they would set up as a guesthouse. This was far more evident in the west. Some made it but many went back south as business was hard work and these old houses, which the locals wouldn't/couldn't buy were just too expensive to maintain.
Weather now. There's nothing like sitting in my sitooterie around midnight on a summer's evening having a wee sip of wine. Sometimes it's still light enough to read without electric light. That only lasts a few weeks I know but it's worth savouring.
Have I got the job?
Well defended Subrosa. During my most recent visit home I really enjoyed rambling through the Machers, and Orkney Mainland. The roads weren't so crowded with traffic that you couldn't go for a walk. I visited most of the country on that visit but didn't spend anytime in your neck of the woods, but wished I had.
In the Machers - as in Orkney - the economy was in collapse at the time. The dairy industry in the south had gone bust. The locals blamed it on the EU, but I couldn't help wondering if it wasn't related to the fallout along the Solway Firth. In Orkney, meanwhile, the parton fishing had collapsed, and the locals blamed the Spanish for fishing nursery beds - probably correctly.
I walked from Stromness to the Ring of Brodgar and then up to Skara Brae along roads with signs proudly proclaiming EU funding for their existence. I remember thinking how this money must have travelled a circuitus route from the North Sea to Westminster to Brussels to Kirkwall. The wealth coming home and the EU taking credit.
But there was a peace and quiet about those places even in bad economic times. I met people who were at one with their bit and knew the history well - of both people and place.
I spent a lot of my time in Edinburgh. A truly cosmopolitan city that retains its Scottish character. I stayed in a flat next door to a young Spanish lady who had very passionate arguments with her partner - he had moved out "temporarily" but came around to get closure I suppose.
I stumbled around my home town of Hamilton and noted the creeping transformation from sandstone to concrete. Many of the old streets had been removed during the sixties and seventies. A time of great vandalism.
I visited my old kirkyard and noted that many of the ancient grave markers - legible in my youth - were now totally obliterated by acid rain from the increase in motorized traffic.
I went into a pub I was familiar with. A pub with a fine bar and working brass pipes to dry your shoes and heat your feet. These facilities were gone. Replaced with, what looked like, cheap formica. I suppose the bar is now propping up drunks somewhere in the US of A.
But the people were still there - the arabic inscriptions and empty shops along the Quarry Street pedestrian precinct not-with-standing. Asda is too convenient. Strathclyde Park is certainly an improvement though. In my youth it was the tip for the town's rubbish.
The thing I noticed most was the conversion of churches into - whatever. This seemed to correlate with the conversion of communities into commuter dormitories.
Scotland is still there if you look for it. But for how much longer?
Ah now that's better, written by a Scotsman instead of someone who wants to 'do' Scotland in 2 days.
Yes Scotland is still here and many are fighting to ensure it stays as it is. Social engineering has tried hard to break the dour Scottish character but all is not lost. Don't forget we're a thrawn bunch and just won't go away.
Dundee was turned into a concrete jungle in the late 60s and on the odd visits I was really upset to see the city of my childhood had more or less been demolished.
Fortunately in the past 10 years the centre has greatly improved, the dreadful concrete block of the Angus Hotel removed and a rather pleasing Debenham's now stands in its place.
There's still a roadbridge and all the necessary approach roads which come straight into the centre of the city. Some trainee planner organised that I'm sure and the promenade has never been developed in all my lifetime, with the exception of the coal stores now being a Tesco with possibly the best checkout views in the UK.
But Scotland is still here, hanging by a tack in some places, but still Scotland.
Scunnert many fight day in and day out to ensure our culture isn't corroded further but who can say, unless we get independence, how successful they will be.
I've just come across this wee gem which was a tag in an email :
'There are two excellent theories for arguing with women. Neither one works.'
anon
Smart thinking eh?
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