Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Get VAT Back When You Spend Your Dollars in Scotland – But Only If You're Russian

According to my travel advisor Ken in Bournemouth in the September issue of "Destination UK" whose aim is "promoting UK tourism to the world's travel trade" there's a whole mass of stuff on how visitScotland is doing its best to attract visitors. Amongst the articles is one about their efforts to attract Russian convention visitors via a web site www.conventionscotland.com/ru. Hats off to them for doing a web site in Russian of which this is the opening page .

Click on the dollar notes and it takes you off to another page which features a piece about getting your VAT back on your purchases. Now one or two things comes to mind. Either it's aimed at American visitors or they are confused about what currency Russians are using. Indeed I believe it is illegal in Russia to show prices in dollars. Would it not have been better to have a wad of Scots notes?

2 comments:

Colin Campbell said...

Based upon my travels around the world, Scotland, other than the duty free, is one of the few places where it is hard to use dollars for purchases. Interesting strategy by the Tourist Board.

Ken said...

Of course the other minor issue is getting from Russia to Scotland to spend those Dollars. There aren't any scheduled services. A quick check on expedia shows that the cheapest fare on a connecting flight from Moscow to Glasgow (via London) is $260 more than the fare from Moscow to London.