Tourism in Scotland

The economics of tourism are the last ditch effort of an unimaginative society. Roberta Brandes Gratz, The Living City

The future of tourism for Scotland

Several major newspapers have recently reported the problems faced by the tourism industry in Scotland highlighting that major changes have to occur if Scotland is to compete successfully in the global tourism industry. A strong message was sent out by Visit Scotland, which set out a vision of how Scotland needs to change and continually move forward.

The problems faced are that globalisation has made the world a much smaller place and it's easy to holiday just about anywhere, with the whole world doing tourism and many doing it much better than Scotland.

With so many cheap flights available to so many destinations many of which offer hot sunny climes and a much more affordable holiday, it is going to be difficult for Scotland to continue to attract visitors.

Many parts of Scotland such as the major cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh have much more to offer than areas such as Perthshire where this is little to see or do and where having a good time often depends heavily on the weather.

Mr Peter Macmahon Scottish government editor, described two possible extremes for the tourism industry from a scenario planning exercise commissioned by VisitScotland whose aims are to increase income from visitors over the next 20 years.

On the positive side, if there was a fall in airfares and hotel prices, the major cities may become an attractive destination for the weekend visitors. How likely is that?

Perhaps more worryingly, a report considering Scotland as 'yesterdays destination' was put forward describing tourism as being 'based upon the past , a world of icons and complacency'.

The report also considered the following: Scotland is "an uncompetitive and second-division destination, which has consistently not met the expectations of the sophisticated consumer". Although there are examples of good experiences, "often there is no consistency".

Whilst Edinburgh and Glasgow may be able to sustain visitor numbers, they will face very stiff competition from other cities who are already way ahead in the popularity stakes for weekend jaunts - try Dublin, Belfast, Newcastle, Manchester, Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam etc etc.

Let's hope that Scottish cities are not turned into tacky sleazy city centres full of drunken yobs coming here for weekends for hen and stag nights.

With many north American visitors reluctant to travel outside of the US and with the dollar so week against the pound, Scotland is a very expensive destination and rural areas like Perth Scotland will find it even more difficult to compete with the added burden of global warming having a major impact on our weather and with such high fuel prices. You cannot get around Perthshire (as with much of the rest of rural Scotland) effectively without a car.

At a recent conference of tourism chiefs, the chairman Gavin Ellis stated: 'Scotland’s largest industry must look to a future that seems more uncertain than before....... we must not allow ourselves to concentrate on talking rather than doing........ we cannot afford to do anything wrong if other countries are always doing things right,'