EventScotland a Non-Event?

Whaddya mean you've never hard of EventScotland? Surely you have? It's the organization that, amongst other things, has been coordinating Homecoming Scotland – that mega event designed to bring Scots home in their droves during the course of 2009. You'll not be surprised to know that they have about the same abilities in their web site activities as their counterpart VisitScotland.

According to their web site "At EventScotland we are working hard, with our partners, to ensure Scotland remains one of the premier event destinations in the world." It's yet another quango who are sucking up money that could be better spent if it were part of a better structured situation under the tourism umbrella (although not VisitScotland of course). So inept are the numpties at EventScotland that they cannot even spell Britain in their literature (they think it's Britian!). They have also just paid a London PR firm £40,000 to undertake PR on Homecoming Scotland. EventScotland employs around 25 people with a staff cost of £4.6 million and last year they contributed almost £4 million to various events (not saying that's a bad thing but when their staff costs are higher than what they contribute it begs the question). EventScotland's other operating costs were almost £600,000.

By the way, still no word on how VisitScotland intend to run their online booking service following the debacle with eTourism. eTourism's cumulative losses to the end of 2007 were £12.4 million, VisitScotland have had to write-off a £2.7 million of loans and interest on loans in their last accounts. Meanwhile we still have a rubbish web site and no sign of things getting any better.

VisitScotland, if you can find anything to do. . .

VisitScotland are without doubt one of the most inept tourism organizations in the Western world. Disaster after disaster seems to come their way and yet the people that run it sail serenely on as if none of it is their fault. The latest problem we hear concerns £1.2 million of visitScotland's money, which is mostly our money, as the Scottish Government is their biggest funder, is having to be poured into visitScotland.com to save it from financial ruin. Things are so bad that visitScotland are taking over the running of visitScotland.com (inmates & asylums). What I hear you say they don't already run it? No of course not, it's run by a public-private partnership, eTourism. This in turn is run by Marco Truffelli, chief executive of VisitScotland.com, who is expected to continue running the website, despite its failings.

Mad or bad? Well back in February we were told that visitScotland were revamping the web site to make it more exciting. VisitScotland.com, which has endured fierce criticism from hoteliers and racked up millions of pounds in losses since it was set up five years ago. It was shut down in favour of a new site designed with the approval of key industry figures including Jim Mather, the tourism minister. Here we are ten months later and it's gone from bad to worse.

According to Philip Riddle, the chief executive of visitScotland, work would be carried out within weeks to ensure the website had a "more inspiring" feel, but he insisted a widespread overhaul was not required. However, he admitted he was having to fund the £1.2 million bail-out from his budget. That's the same as what was said back in February. . .

Just go take a look at the visitscotland.com site. It is so dull and uninspiring. Then of course there's visitscotland.org which is run by visitscotland, not eTourism. It's all very confusing and all very dull. Back in May 2007 I said on this blog. "I'll spare you all by not going on about the numerous bizarre things on their site, the mistakes and the tortuous process of actually finding out information. The problem is simple, their web site is designed by geeks not by people trying to market Scotland. Until it's fixed it will continue to under perform - despite what they say."

I'll give you one small example of how bad visitScotland.com is today. Under Edinburgh events there are two listed for today...both are traditional folk ceilidhs. Under next week's things to do....another ceilidh. Under the next 90 days, there's more ceilidhs, the Hogmanay celebration, the St. Andrew's day celebration and the Sleeping Beauty ballet....that's it! If you click on the St Andrew's day celebration for more details apparently nothing is happening. This is the capital for God's sake. . .and that's it? Still lucky you're not thinking of visiting Dundee where the only thing happening is the Orchar Collection at Broughty Castle or St Andrew's Day. . .where again nothing is happening.

It is time for a change, of that there is no question. visitScotland has been roundly criticised by government, industry figures, hoteliers, the public, B&B owners, in fact just about everyone in Scotland. Yet Mr Riddle the Chief Executive continues to hold down his job, one in which he's paid about the same as the Prime Minister and none of it is his fault or the fault of his board of directors. There's no question, given the industries importance to the Scottish economy, that radical action is needed. Above all else visitScotland.com fails to deliver on 'Scotland the Brand'. It's time for a change otherwise soon no one will be visiting Scotland.

Scottish Air Travel Market - It's Getting A Lot Worse

The BAA's results for September are out and they don't make pretty reading, but then again that's far from surprising. Overall in the UK passenger numbers are down by 1.7%; that equates to over a quarter of a million passengers. For Scotland's two main airports the results are much worse; in August there were 50,000 fewer passengers flying through Glasgow and Edinburgh. In fact it looks like the number of passengers using both airports this year will decline by between 450,000 and 500,000 people. Passenger numbers have declined for eight of the last twelve months from the two airports. In fact both Edinburgh and Glasgow could show a reduction in their total number of passengers this year - Glasgow definitely will. Because of the summer bookings being made well before the credit crunch took hold there has been something of a cushion effect on traffic; over the winter there will be no such cushion.

Of course the most worrying trend is that how much faster traffic is falling to and from Scottish airports than it is from the other UK airports. As consumer buying power continues to get squeezed this trend could get significantly worse. My money is still on Ryanair introducing a much reduced set of new services come November. These are the ones that have already been delayed from a late September start-up - supposedly because of new aircraft deliveries being held up by a strike at Boeing that started a couple of days before their announcement. In the airline business November is a traditionally dire month to start any new Northern hemisphere services. Even if they do start up there will be some blood-letting as the carriers fight for traffic; six of the eleven new Ryanair routes already have existing service from other airlines.

UPDATE – The news this morning of XL will only make things worse.

Further UPDATE – If you want to know why there are problems in the airline business just check this out.

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?

Scotland's Air Travel Market is in Trouble

The Scottish air travel market is going through lean times. Today's figures from the BAA show that Glasgow and Edinburgh's combined passenger numbers were down 2.3% for the month of July. For the year to date the total number of passengers using the two airports is down by 1.4%. It's quite likely by the year end that they will be down by around 2% on 2007 and even showing a decline on 2006. Things are much worse at Glasgow, but Edinburgh seems to be slipping into decline as well.

This tells you two things; VisitScotland are not cutting the mustard and all the euphoric talk about a rapidly expanding scottish travel market, that was being mentioned within the last year, is tosh. Edinburgh is going to fail to even reach it's lower passenger forecasts for the year 2013 - none of which is good news for the economy. The decline in July is not restricted to Scotland's airports. London's airports are 1.6% down, whereas Scotland's three BAA airports (the third is Aberdeen) are down by 2.3%.

VisitScotland and the Real Definition of Green Marketing

It's either the silly season or VisitScotland have finally tipped over the edge. You'd think in this difficult times for marketing Scotland to the world, with a strong pound vs. the dollar and in these troubled economic times that the organization charged with increasing tourism would be focused on the main job in hand. Not a bit of it, they've now decided to introduce yet another marketing scheme. According to their latest scheme. "Hotels, guest houses, restaurants and visitor attractions will be challenged to change long-standing habits, adopt new energy-saving measures and promote eco-friendly initiatives. Guests will be urged to 'go green' on holiday by ditching their cars, hiring a bike or going on a walking trip, and cutting down on the amount of water they use."

Among VisitScotland's ideas to help businesses improve their environmental record are collecting rainwater for re-use, installing low-energy lighting systems, recycling all glass, cans and plastic, and installing water-efficient toilets. Apparently once a business has signed up to the new "Going Green" initiative they will be coached throughout the year by experts at VisitScotland, with the aim of securing accreditation to the organisation's Green Tourism Business Scheme. Then they will get a little green plaque to go with their VisitScotland rating's plaque.

This is madness! A plethora of initiatives continue to flow out of the national tourist organization from people who clearly have little idea how marketing tourism works. VisitScotland's much-vaunted web site revamp still leaves me, and probably many others, cold. Just take the Scottish Borders, forty one places are listed in their place guide to the region, of which nine, 22%, have in their description." A full description of this location will be added shortly." It's been like that now for years and still nothing new. But it gets worse. Under Kirk Yetholm there's this picture. It's probably closer to twenty years old than ten! The fact is that until someone gets a hold of visitScotland and addresses its fundamental weaknesses will continue to drag it down – they should start with their dull and boring, clunky website.

Trump Town Latest

So the Trump town project will have to face a public inquiry. Of course the great man is disappointed but as his spokesman said yesterday. "It is his legacy for Scotland and he remains committed to building the world's finest golf course in one of the most stunning locations in the world." His legacy for Scotland? You just love the arrogance don't you? Will it happen? My guess is not.

It's the second blow in a week. Trump has been told to stop promoting his development with the coat of arms. Despite this it still appears on his web site. The demand was made by the Court of the Lord Lyon, which deals with Scottish heraldry, under a law passed in 1672. The same law was used to order the Harrods owner Mohammed Fayed to take down the arms of a clan chief from the gates of his Highland castle.

What is it with these nobodies trying desperately to prove their somebody?

Tourism Targets - Twinning Cities is the Answer

There's news today that West Lothian is planning to twin with the city of Grapevine in Texas. Local Scottish opposition to the scheme claim that it's just a ruse to justify a "junket" trip to the US last year. However, the twinning will put in place for business link-ups and exchange visits, expected to start next year with a visit to Scotland by a delegation of Texan officials.

Now I've been to Grapevine, it's just north of the huge DFW airport complex and you'd be forgiven for knowing where the city starts and ends, it all seems to be part of Dallas - Fort Worth conurbation. However, perhaps they're onto something. If every place in Britain was twinned with a town, city or village in every country in the world the tourists could just shuttle between the twinned places on visits. It would negate the need for VisitScotland and make life oh so simple.

Tourism For Dummies?

It gets worse. Yesterday at their Tourism Forum Jim Mather, minister for tourism, believes the industry should aim for £2.1 billion more every year over the next eight years by attracting high-spending visitors willing to pay for a higher-value holiday. He wants to expand tourism in Scotland by 50 per cent by 2015 despite VisitScotland repeating a warning that the figure is unachievable on current trends.

VisitScotland's chief executive Philip Riddle is now back peddling from what he was saying last year that 50 per cent was "an ambition rather than a target" and the genesis of the figure had been "less than scientific". Meanwhile John Brown the head of the tourism unit at the Scottish Executive, told the conference Jim Mather was still committed to the target - and could make it tougher. Mr Brown said growth could be achieved through events such as Homecoming Scotland, which will encourage thousands of expatriate Scots to return in 2009 for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns.

A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said: "The targets are ambitious. However, Scotland is an ambitious country and we will continue to work towards 50 per cent growth." We used to be the 'best small country' now they want us to be the 'best ambitious country.’

And where are the plans for all this growth, real action rather than "less than scientific" twaddle from VisitScotland and the Minister for Tourism? Meanwhile Mr Mather's expenses for last year to the parliament reveal he sent our money on a copy of ‘Statistics for Dummies’ and ‘Statistical Analysis and Excel for Dummies’.

If only there was a book called 'Tourism For Dummies', then again maybe they're better placed to write 'Tourism By Dummies'?

Tourism Tinkering with the Targets

VisitScotland’s latest attempt to prove their worth is as an empty a plan as they’ve ever conceived. In a speech today to the Scottish Tourism Forum in Dundee, according to the Scotsman Philip Ripple the organization’s Head will describe a plan to attract higher-spending tourists to Scotland that will (hopefully) see one in ten visitors spending an extra £250 during their holiday by 2015.

According to the Riddle ‘encouraging tourists to stay longer or visit more attractions will be among the most important ways of growing Scottish tourism by 50 per cent over the next eight years. A key part of his plan is to generate an extra £9 per visitor per day by "cross-selling" techniques such as serving locally sourced food in restaurants or selling local crafts in cafes. VisitScotland also believes the industry can make 12 per cent extra by filling more hotel beds during the low season from November to May.

"There is no reason why we can't aspire to the success of countries like Switzerland in realizing high returns from the delivery of high quality. VisitScotland also hopes to make more money from business tourists who come to Scotland for conferences.

This is the latest smoke and mirrors scam from the redundant and moribund VisitScotland who try to blind us all with targets and figures. The fact is that this is not a measurable target and because they are falling way short of where they need to be on actual visitor numbers this is their attempt at fudging the figures. They are a discredited organization that needs to address the fundamentals not tinker with the targets.

The End of Life as We Know It?

There's an article in today's Observer entitled 'Heathrow devalues the price of happiness.' It discusses how people's lives are 'blighted' by airport noise, and specifically aircraft noise.

Dutch economists looked at people living on the flight paths into Amsterdam airport. They found that they weren’t compensated for the noise by cheaper house prices, because Amsterdam, like most British cities, doesn’t have an efficient property market that allows its residents to make neat trade-offs. They calculated that the cost in misery from aircraft noise was about £1.60 per flight. Start a meter running in every house on an urban flight path and you quickly reach enormous figures.

In other words, people living near British airports could sue. Going to the courts may seem a fanciful prospect. But no one has ever accused lawyers of being slow to find new ways of drumming up business, and last week Chicago University's Law School held the world's first conference on the legal implications of the new research on happiness. Everyone agreed they were enormous.

BAA and the airlines seem like over mighty subjects beyond the control of government and customers. But if the happiness economists are right, they may soon be cut down to size by colossal claims for compensation. It couldn't happen to nicer people.

There's a huge numbers of issues at play here, not least the continuation of life as we know it. Clearly the lawyers can see a payday looming, the likes of which they've not had wind of since Human Rights Legislation was first mooted.

But two things strike me. Is it just people who live near Heathrow, or any other airport, that moved there after it was established that will be in line for a pay out? Failing that is there a cut off time - you have had to live there since say 1980? I also love the way that the writer just sees the BAA and the airlines as the problem - the villain in the piece. Is it not us that want to travel? Does he travel? Does his family travel? Is his food flown here so that he can eat? Does his iPod or whatever other gizmo or consumer electronic or FedEx packet magic itself to Britain like a 'beam me up Scotty' moment from Star Trek?

Travel Green?

67% of Americans would rather travel in an eco-friendly way, according to a survey done this spring by the online travel company Orbitz. About 65% of travellers would be more likely to stay at a hotel if it used solar or wind power, and 63% would pay more to rent a hybrid vehicle or stay at a "green" hotel.

Ah, but, would they? Would people really pay more and how much more to 'travel green’? Clearly in the UK we're paying more to travel green or not green, without a real choice, given the governments love of taxing us for the privilege. If the prices were brought down and then we were offered a choice then it could all be so very different. Will any government really grasp the nettle?

Why Can't We Get It Right?

Yesterday we went over to Mellerstain House near Gordon for an art exhibition. We'd been invited by Andrea Geile who makes very interesting piece for the garden using rusty metal. She had a few pieces in the garden but the bulk of the exhibition was paintings and some ceramics. We enjoyed looking at both the art, and the people, and especially enjoyed the garden which is lovely.

When we'd finished we decided to try the 'tea room' for a light lunch. Inside they proudly displayed an award from Scottish Borders Council saying they were highly commended in the 'Tastes of the Borders 2007' competition. We were encouraged! When our jacket potatoes arrived they were dire and summed up everything about why we struggle with tourism locally. I had coleslaw and bacon, which turned out to be shop bought coleslaw of the cheapest kind with a slice of bacon laid across the top. Mrs. H. had cheese and a spring onion chopped up on top of it; there was very little of it and it was the cheapest 'orange' cheddar. Both were accompanied by a 'salad garnish'. A few bits of yellow lettuce and a quarter if a tomato. We sat outside in a courtyard area that was tatty, inside it was dark and smelled of frying.

It's a shame that one of the most lovely houses and settings in the Borders is let down in this way. We both resolved never to go back there again for something to eat.

p.s. The tea was stewed!

What Makes Ireland So Good?

Visiting Ireland is always something we enjoy. The people are great, there's always a warm welcome and somehow it all adds up to a great holiday. So why is it in Scotland we can't seem to get it as right as the Irish do? I know that we're not visitors to our own land but from all the evidence the fact is that Scotland is not as successful when it comes to marketing itself as Ireland is. On balance I think Scotland is more beautiful overall, Edinburgh is a better city than Dublin and we win hands down on the price of just about everything. Scotland's even more green than Ireland!

I think it might be as simple as the Irish tourist board tell you that you are going to enjoy Ireland so much more. They have you convinced before you even arrive. And before anyone even says it there were just as many Poles, Eastern Europeans and non-Irish people that we came face to face with in bars, restaurants and elsewhere as there are in Scotland! Whatever is their trick VisitScotland need to learn it and not just copy their TV adverts.

The SNP Do The Splits

In the new SNP cabinet the junior ministers under John Sweeney's finance and sustainable growth brief are Jim Mather as minister for enterprise, energy and tourism, and Stewart Stevenson as minister for transport, infrastructure and climate change.

Now I would have thought keeping energy and climate change together made sense and transport and tourism. Instead the numpties split them, still they are all a bit new at this. Not quite sure what 'infrastructure' is, of course I know what it means, but not how it's a part of a department, but no doubt all will be revealed.

p.s. there's also a minister for the environment so that ought to produce some interesting discussion between Mather, Stevenson and Mike Russell the M of E.