VisitScotland admits that levels of confidence within the Scottish tourism industry have been falling, with their latest research showing that 45 per cent of those surveyed feel less optimistic than last year.
But it insisted results were mixed, with some businesses reporting significant declines, others significant growth, some hotels reporting lower than expected booking, others showing higher occupancy rates.
Importantly, they feel that the aim to increase Scottish tourism revenue – for which Edinburgh is still the major gateway – by 50 per cent by 2015 is still achievable, despite the current economic climate.
Here's a potential market:
In England, 57 per cent of children aged five to twelve have visited visited Spain and 54 per cent France. But only 44 per cent have visited Wales and 39 per cent Scotland.
Though a bit of fine-tuning of attitudes may be required in certain areas...
2 comments:
My fifteenth wedding anniversary today.
We had our honeymoon in Scotland.
Two things in particular stand out. We stopped off in Gretna Green where we visited a Church having a fund-raising fete and the people we chatted to were some of the nicest you could find anywhere.
And then in some town on the way back where I was suddenly subjected to a stream of anti-English abuse from a 50+ year old woman who had heard my accent.
The trouble is, it only takes a small number of people to ruin the Scottish "experience" for everyone.
A few years back I heard the Scottish First Minister on the Today programme saying that Scots had to stop being nasty to the English because it was harming their tourism industry.
I was pretty angry.
The implication was that being nasty to the English was perfectly reasonable just so long as it didn't affect Scottish interests.
Says it all really.
A few years back I heard the Scottish First Minister on the Today programme saying that Scots had to stop being nasty to the English because it was harming their tourism industry.
Which is missing the point really.
But now according to the sppeach I posted last week, for SNP the English are "friends" not enemies. That fact still needs to filter down I suspect however to all the dark corners.
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