XL Go X Rated

This just in from a pal in the airline business...

The latest XL related casualty is the closing this morning of....wait for it...Throb Holidays.

Throb specialises in holidays for gay persons...nothing like using a discrete name! At least the passengers had protection (so to speak) through the ATOL scheme.

Throb had of course paid all their money to XL, and now cannot recover those funds. This is the problem with tour operator to tour operator sales. Passenger's remain protected through the bonding scheme, but the tour operator who has paid their money (in this case to XL Leisure, as opposed to the airline) loses it and simply becomes a creditor.

You couldn't make it up....

Anyone want to buy...

....a used airport? But it's not necessarily going cheap. There's news today that the Spanish owned BAA could be forced to sell off either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports by the Competition Commission. It's reported in today's Scotsman, but comments by the public on their web site are as usual wide of the reality mark. Airport landing fees are about the only way that airports can make themselves more attractive to an airline, after you remove the geographical factor. If it were as simple as lower landing prices then all flights would leave from Prestwick where they have lower fees than at either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Even before the rising fuel prices landing fees were a relatively small percentage of an airline’s operating costs. Even if either one of the two main Scottish airports halved its landing fees then it’s not necessarily a big boost for the airlines – other than those already using the airport. Of course competition is such that if one airport did it, then the other would follow suit and there would be a short-term gain for the airlines but probably very little gain for the passenger.

Operators like BAA derive the lions share of their operating revenues from airport shopping, concessions and parking, so on the face of it they could afford to drop their landing fees somewhat. However, the splitting up of BAA (lowland) Scotland will not necessarily be the bonanza for passengers that some are predicting. There won’t suddenly be a long line of airlines wanting to fly from either one of the airports, even with lower landing fees, because the problem is passenger demand, not a falsely created competitive environment.

While the current high price of fuel may be a temporary blip there are many other factors that go towards making air travel less of a buoyant business moving forward. Rampant growth is just not going to happen for the Scottish airports. Already BAA Edinburgh is well below their lowest anticipated growth targets for 2013 that were made back in 2004/5. Their low forecast was 11.9 million passengers in five years time; their high was 13.7 million. The likely figure is in the range of 10.2 million to 10.9 million.

And one thing’s for sure. This competition will do little to improve the ‘passenger experience’. The pressures on security, check-in and all the other ‘on the ground’ aspects of flying will still be there and still be far less pleasant than we would all like. Downward pressure on costs in all these areas does nothing to improve things and this will not change. Our expectations as passengers far outweigh the airlines ability to deliver a product that can ever be achieved at the kind of fares we all would like.

The Cycle of Aviation

Yesterday in the Scotsman there was an article prompted by BA’s planned reduction of 500 flights out of 5,000 over the winter period in response to the crisis in the airline industry. There were the usual daft over reaction from all concerned about why was Scotland being targeted in this way blah, blah, blah. The fact is that with so many flights from London to Scotland from so many airports down south it is the obvious route grouping for some consolidation. For BA and all the other airlines it’s about reducing costs while trying to maintain revenues – a simple case of business economics.

Reading the attacks on BA in the paper’s comment column you’d think that they were a part of a Unionist alliance against Scotland. People are calling for the Scottish Government to do something – it's a case of welcome to the real world! There was even an article from Colin Borland of the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, who warned that it is putting Scotland at a disadvantage.

"How can we compete for contracts with companies based in, say, London, if we can't get to a meeting without leaving the night before? Not only that, given that many flights to international destinations route through London, it will take longer and cost more to do business in Europe and beyond. Reducing the frequency of flights is also bound to have a knock-on effect on the price we'll pay for those flights which do remain available. It's a lose-lose situation – fewer flights at higher cost. Perhaps it's now time for Government at all levels to safeguard Scotland's long-term transport and business links and make a commitment to a proper high speed rail link between Scotland and the rest of the UK."

Now you wonder how come this organization even gets the word ‘business’ in their title, because he clearly has only a passing knowledge of how it works. There are just not enough people neither living in Scotland nor wanting to visit Scotland from many destinations – either to do business or come on holiday - to get more routes direct from Scotland to the world. No amount of posturing by the government or anyone else is going to change that. So far this year passenger numbers from Edinburgh and Glasgow combined are down on the first six months of last year – well before the perfect aviation or global economic storm that everyone talks about. This situation has been coming for a while. And it’s also precisely because there has been a rise in flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh to international destinations that there is pressure on BA to cut the number of flights from London to Scotland.

The high-speed train link is probably a good idea – however long it may take to build - but frankly it will do nothing to address the connectivity of Scotland to the world, arguably it might even worsen that situation. Governments are powerless in this day of non-state owned and controlled airlines; it’s economics, economics, economics dear boy. Neither is it anything to do with an independent Scotland. In this day and age of open markets it’s a case of a flying free for all, a situation that has prevailed in the USA for years. Hub and spoke flying is the order of the day and nothing will radically change that. The Ryanair model is under even more threat and proposed new routes from them and others from Scotland must be under threat. Supply and demand is even more important in airline economics than most industries. Their product cannot sit on the shelf waiting for someone to come along to pick it up, it cannot be warehoused, but it can be taken from one route and moved elsewhere; alternatively an aircraft can be sat on the ground – the airline equivalent of reducing production. For the next few years there will be higher fares and reduced capacity. It’s what the airline business has always been about – a cyclical industry that sees airlines fail and then new entrant carriers start up when times get good, using aircraft with great financing deals attached to them offered by a manufacturing industry that is in desperate need to stay in business.

In real terms the cost of flying has been going down for years – at some point they have to start going up because cost savings have bottomed out.

Easyjet going the wrong way....

In January 2008 over at my other blog on the airline business I posted this.....

Would you believe it easyJet's share price is down. Just as we've been predicting for months here at Airline Confidential things are getting tricky. By the close their shares were trading at a shade over 450 pence, well down on the day; last spring they were up around 700 pence. It comes off the back of easyJet announcing their December results. Though passenger numbers increased by 9.9% on the back of new routes, there's been a sharp decline in their load factor (down over 2% points). Over extension some are saying and who are we to disagree. With consumer spending tightening things are only going to get worse. Four days ago easyjet announced their biggest ever sale. I would love to have been a fly on the wall in their forward planning meetings. There are likely to be some people in that company with a lot of egg on their face in nine months time.

Apparently stock market analysts remain cautiously optimistic for the prospects for budget carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet. Now if I was nursing a nett gain on my my Easyjet or Ryanair shares I think I'd take the money and run.

Well today easyJet shares are down to 246 pence a share....

From the Lammermuirs to London

Sometimes living in the Borders feels like living a long way from anywhere. When we first moved north from the Sussex sunbelt people would often ask what life was like in the Lammermuir Hills. Our answer was usually along the lines of "Nineteen fifty seven." It really was like moving back in time. In the old Co-op in Duns it was tricky getting plain yoghurt ten years ago, and sun dried tomatoes were totally out of the question - today all that's changed. While we have moved a lot closer to the end of the last century the Borders still retain much of their magical old world charm - uncrowded roads, life moving at a pace which allows people to stop for a chat with their neighbours and customs and practices that underline the rural idyll.

A few years ago I was talking to someone born in the hills in the 1940s and he told me that when he was a teenager there were still shepherds that spent their summers out on the hills with their flocks. There were many who rarely left the Lammermuirs to go as far as Duns or Haddington; others had only been to Edinburgh once or twice in their lives. For them the idea of me making a day trip to London would have been akin to going for a walk on the moon. We all too readily take for granted the ease by which we can now travel and it’s surprising to me that people still get so annoyed and frustrated when their journey is interrupted or delayed in some small way. To me the complexities of running a sophisticated transport system shifting millions of people a day around the UK are staggering.

I'm just happy to be able to leave home at 6.45 in the morning, have lunch in London, followed by a couple of meetings and get home again by 10.15 at night - all without boarding an aeroplane. Added to which I get the bonus of a great view of the Northumberland coastline and the North Sea. Can you imagine what those shepherds would have made of WiFi from a train? Unimaginable!

Over The Sea To Skye

Radio silence for the past few days has been as a result of a trip to Skye. While the south of the UK has had horrible weather much of Scotland has been bathed in glorious sunshine. On Thursday we went to Fort Augustus and spent the night with old friends who have an apartment in the old Abbey on the banks of Loch Ness and a short walk from the Caledonian canal.

On Friday morning it was a leisurely breakfast and then we headed for the west coast and Skye. Instead of going over the Skye bridge we decided that we should go 'over the sea to Skye' and so we took the ferry from Glenelg to Kylerhea. If you've got a little extra time this is THE way to cross the water. The ferry is run by a community company and is worthy of all our support. It costs £10 but the drive to Glenelg from just past Glen Shiel is fantastic. It's like driving through the Alps.


After getting of the ferry we headed to the north west of the island where we were staying at the Three Chimneys, it's a restaurant with rooms - six of them. The location is idyllic and the accomodation is to match. Dinner at the restauarnt is outstanding - not cheap - but all the food is local produce, much of it from the sea and the ambience and the service is excellent. We went with three other couples and so dinner was great fun and lasted for hours!

Saturday was a relaxing day of mooching around followed by another excellent dinner and on Sunday I went with the three other guys south to the Cullin hills for a spot of walking. David and I got up to near the top of the peak in the centre of the picture. We would have made it all the way but for the scree which was way beyond our capabilities. Tony and Gus got a lot further but apparently Tony's bum is grazed and bruised from two many tumbles on the scree. We have this on his partner's authority, none of the rest of us checked up personally.

The view from the top

Sunday evening's dinner was again spectacular and so was the sunset. Monday was a leisurely drive home.

Another Trip Up To The Moral High Ground

Now the Tories have come up with a cunning plan to reduce short haul flights. VAT would be levied on fuel for domestic flights for the first time and airlines would be forced to give over airport slots to long-haul trips. All flights would be subject to a separate per-flight tax based on the amount of CO2 generated, replacing the air passenger duty and shifting the burden from passengers to airlines. The proposals also include plans for a moratorium on airport expansion pending attempts to free capacity at existing airports by restricting short-haul flights and forcing travellers to switch to high speed trains.

They say that because a fifth of journeys are to destinations in Europe and the UK that are served by high speed trains it would reduce the need for a third runway. All this comes from the quality of Life group headed by John Gummer and the environmental campaigner Zac Goldsmith.

They've clearly lost the plot and are jumping on the bandwagon. First of all this will force up ticket prices when you shift the 'burden' to the airlines because funnily enough they'll pass it on to the passengers. I know there's the expansion of the Eurostar upcoming but what high speed trains in the UK? Unless I'm very much mistaken, and I'm a regular traveller to London on the Edinburgh line, it is pretty full a lot of the time and there doesn't seem to be that much spare capacity. Many of the passengers using domestic flights are connecting to long haul flights at Heathrow and it is naive to think that it will 'force' airlines to increase in any significant way long haul flights from non-London airports.

At some point or another politicians are going to realise that this 'push of the green vote' is going to start to backfire. Yet again we in Britain seem to be climbing to the top of the moral high ground while others are just laughing at us. Added to which it is people who are travelling on plans at their own free will. If they are to stop flying so much it either has to be through price or legislation that limits capacity. Capacity legislation will likely be challenged in the European courts and similarly any moves to increase taxes or landing fees will not just affect British airlines but also European airlines - again fodder for the courts.

We either have to be convinced that by not flying so much we will save the planet or we will have to be forced not to fly domestically so much by the government restricting flights. For me all other bets are off. Oh yes, and if Scotland gains independence it will not be a domestic flight.

UPDATE

If anyone doubts the value of air travel to the UK then they would so well to check THIS on the Department of Transport's web site. The Quality of Life's simplistic view of how air transport and airlines function does not auger well.

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?

Media Scaremongering & MPs Naivety

According to the Daily Mail this morning. "Pressure grew today for urgent changes to protect airport check in queues from terrorist bombers. The all-party Commons transport select committee has called for queuing passengers to be moved through to airside more quickly - two weeks after the Evening Standard revealed fears that people waiting at airports are a prime target for extremists - and raised alarms about the number of passengers breaching carry-on luggage restrictions."

Have we gone completely daft? The logistics of all this are just incredibly complicated and will do nothing but make the 'passenger experience' even worse. Trying to move vast numbers of people through airports at the best of times is a logistical tightrope. Added to which are we really going to have our lives blighted by bowing down to terrorism in such a way? Our media is getting to the point of absurdity with their pronouncements. The doom and gloom approach is depressing people, already depressed by the 'summer weather', and this type of thing is not helpful.

Life will become intolerable unless we stop this scare mongering. There is no such thing as 100% security and there has to be a balance between the risk and life continuing in a way that allows our economy to flourish and our state of mind to be maintained. This committee of MPs is doing us a disservice with their naive approach and at the same time it's acting exactly as the terrorists want.

Well It Has To Be Somebody's Fault - Doesn't It?

You'd think we were facing a national emergency, a critical meltdown in the transport infrastructure of Great Briatin or worse still - the end of life as we know it. Instead the Air Transport Users Committee (who's on the committee, who are these users?) has received 12,000 complaints last year from airline users, which is apparently up 22% from the previous year.

Let's put this into perspective. Some 148 million people flew through the BAA's seven UK airports in the UK last year and therefore it was something around one complaint for every 12,500 passengers. Put another way that's one complaint for every thirty something Boeing 747s. Of course many of those passengers came from overseas but still it's hardly an industry in meltdown.

There are a number of issues at play here, not least the fact that people expect air travel to be better than it's ever capable of being. As I've said about before it's a champagne at beer prices syndrome that we're suffering from. What would happen if there was somebody we could complain to every time we faced a delay on a car journey? Add to this the fact that we have a media which is obsessed with telling us that the world is a lousy, doomed, crisis ridden and thoroughly nasty place - 24/7 - and is it surprising that people have begun to believe it? Oh yes, and there's all those adverts telling us - "where there's blame, ther's a claim".

There’s also the security issues which everyone from passengers, to airlines, and the media and the 'interested parties' seem to want changed, yet the government holds firm here in the UK to the one piece of hand baggage rule. Let's spare a thought for the creaking system that is under such extreme pressure because we the public want flights, here, there, and everywhere, at prices that don't make our credit cards creak. This is a part of the problem and accounts for some knock on effects across the system. It also is a damned if they do, damned if they don't position for the government.

People who are travelling have always been tense about time. Will the flight be late, or will it get me to the next airport to make my connection? Will I make that important business meeting? Now almost everyone who travels is tense. All this is a recipe for conflict. It’s also a stimuli to complain. Because everything is somebody’s fault, which of course is true. It could be that the somebody might just be us.

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?

Airline Confidential

This is a piece of unashamed self-promotion... My friend Chris Tiffney and I written this book and we'd quite like to sell some more copies! Having said that it's had a reprint so things are looking good.

All of you know people who need a book to read on a plane - this one's perfect. Some of you work in the airline industry. Some of you may be going on holiday. Others just need a laugh....

From the foreword....“ If God had meant man to fly he’d have given us tickets.”

During the last twenty-five years or so the air travel business has seen another revolution. More fuel-efficient engines have radically altered the cost of flying and airlines have changed. The unionized, fat dumb and happy approach of the 1960s and ‘70s has been replaced by the lean and mean attitude of the new entrant carriers – like Southwest in the USA or Ryanair and easyJet in Europe. Not that the switch from the old style industry to the new way has made things any the less interesting. There’s been no noticeable downturn in applications for the mile high club, or reduction in people behaving badly on planes.

Psychologists would no doubt be able to explain, in terms that the likes of us would find difficult to understand, why it is that people and aircraft frequently don’t mix. Undoubtedly it’s got something to do with the fact that most of us are nervous about flying – to varying degrees. No matter how the statistics shape up the average person can’t help thinking, “How is it those things stay up there?” As often as not people who are traveling are tense about time. Will the flight be late, or will it get me to the next airport to make my connection? Will I make that important business meeting? All this is a recipe for conflict. At check-in people are not at their most charming, especially if told that their flight is overbooked or that it’s late - for any one of a hundred seemingly bizarre reasons. This can often result in the strange phenomenon of perfectly reasonable people uttering the immortal line. “Do you know who I am?”

We've also started a blog called, rather cunningly, Airline Confidential. Even before reading some more about the book you may have an uncontrollable urge to buy it and you can do so from Amazon as well as your neighbourhood book shop (possibly!)

Empty words

Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, Alistair Carmichael, has criticised British Airways for failing to serve the whole of the UK and is demanding they restore the level of service in Scotland "as a matter of urgency". He says the problems began in March when BA sold off its Scottish routes to Flybe - except for Shuttle flights to London airports - and made almost all of its 430 ground staff in Scotland redundant. Ticketing, check-in, dispatch and baggage are now dealt with by contract firm Aviance.

Now, regardless of whether the idea of a third party doing BA’s handling is a good idea or not, Mr Carmichael needs a reality check. British Airways are a public company, not a state owned airline, and have been for years. He can demand all he likes it will not make a jot of difference. He goes onto say "Scottish customers have been left paying British Airways prices for an easyJet service. They seem increasingly to care only about long-haul business out of Heathrow. To call themselves British Airways is increasingly seen as a joke in Scotland."

Now if I were easyJet I'd be ticked at him making such an insulting remark. Did he do it under Parliamentary privilege? If not I'd go after him. Apart from that don't you just get tired of politicians making cheap capital out of a public attack on something or someone where there’s no earthly point? His remarks are designed to do one thing - give him kudos in the eyes of his electorate. The former hotel manager and solicitor really ought to know better.

Amazing Statistic

We all think the roads are less safe today than they were years ago, but are they?

In 2005 there were 3,201 deaths in road traffic accidents. I've just found out, from a book about 1964, that there were 7,820 deaths just over forty years ago. That's 144% more - a staggering statistic given the fact that there are vastly more vehicles on the road. In fact in 1964 there were a little over 9 million and today there's over 33 million.

What a Way to (try) and Run a Railroad

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson has said plans to reopen the Waverley line by 2011 were "not achievable" due to a financial shortfall. Now there’s a surprise!

He’s also said that the burden would now fall on Scottish Borders and Midlothian councils to fill the funding gap. Well there’s another surprise. David Parker, the independent leader of Scottish Borders Council has said they had given as much funding to the scheme as it could.

Naturally the LibDems are blowing hard, but their little scheme to get the railway reopened was one of the factors that saw Euan Robson lose his seat to Tory, John Lamont.

John Swinney said “…it is becoming clear that the original cost estimates were overly ambitious - that is a product of the way in which the project has come forward and been managed by the previous administration. What the government has done is reaffirm a financial commitment that was given by the previous government and we have set out what needs to be done to ensure the railway can take its course. According to the Scottish Borders Council if the Executive doesn’t foot the bill it will collapse.
As I’ve posted before, this scheme has been doomed from the start. It’s been poorly managed, ill thought out, improperly costed and its passenger forecasts are hopelessly ambitious.

In my view the reopening of the Waverley Line will never happen. In the process many families have seen their property values plummet, there’s been uncertainty and a great deal of anguish for many people as a result of the numpties in Holyrood and the junior numpties at Newtown St. Boswells (Borders Party excepted).

For more see here and here

It’s nice to go travelling....

.... and it’s even nicer to get there. I had to leave the Borders this morning at 6 a.m. to head to Berwick-upon-Tweed to catch the train to London. I had decided to leave earlier than I was going to do in order to give myself some extra time because of the dreadful weather yesterday in and around Yorkshire. I got on the 06.44 and within a few minutes of leaving Berwick, barely time enough to order my bacon and tomato toasty when there was an announcement.

“This train will be going no further than York as the line is blocked between there and Doncaster.” Had it only just happened, why hadn’t anyone mentioned it before we’d got on? Train staff did their best but knew little more than us. “There’s no buses to take you beyond York as I expect they’re all doing school runs.”

“Are there any taxis?” asked one passenger nearby. “Yes, but the road might be blocked.” Is it the end of the world? I took the decision to get off at Newcastle, the train staff were urging us to do that and “return north!” I got online with Wifi and tried to book a BA flight from Newcastle to Heathrow, after two attempts it had still failed to accept my booking. With Newcastle approaching I called BA.

“We are experiencing exceptional call volumes, please expect to wait ten minutes for an agent.” Twenty minutes later an agent appeared and I booked on the 9.10 flight (cost £216.50), as the train was pulling into Newcastle station at 7.45. I headed for the Metro and got down to the area to buy my ticket. It didn’t take credit cards or notes for the £2.70 fare so I had to hot foot it back to Smiths to buy a 57p tube of mints. I proffered a £10 note, “sorry”. I finally got on the train at just before 8 and arrived at the airport at 8.20. Checked in with one of those machines and then deposited by nag and headed foe security. Naturally there was a queue, but there was also an announcement of a twenty-minute delay. Finally through security at 9.10, on board and we departed at 9.45.

We landed at Heathrow at 10.45, and then spent fifteen minutes standing on board at the gate because there was no one to drive the jetty (yet another of those nautical terms adopted by the aviation world. Getting into the baggage reclaim I waited another twenty minutes for the bags to start coming up and so here I am o the Heathrow Express, cost £15.50 (surely the most expensive train per mile in Britain) and we’re naturally delayed en route. I should be in Chelsea by 12.30 in time for my 1 p.m. meeting. I’ve only been up for six hours, feels like forever.

Some people even travel for pleasure – amazing!

Transport Will Be Green

The Green Party has been given the leadership of the powerful transport committee after a reshuffle of the Scottish Parliament's structure. There are 15 committees five being led by the SNP, five by Labour, two by the Tories, two by the Liberal Democrats and one by the Green Party.

These committees scrutinise legislation and hold the government to account. It is impossible for the SNP to have a majority on most of the committees and therefore the system could be used by opposition parties to push through their own legislation or publish critical reports on the government.

The transport, infrastructure and climate change will be led by Patrick Harvie, the Green MSP. As a fierce critic of new road-building projects and an advocate of public transport. "Members of the committees must strive to work constructively, putting the interests of the country, and, in this case, the planet, before short-term political objectives."

It’s barely credible that the Greens get control of something that they are at odds with just about everybody on. In the election they picked up slightly over 82,000 list votes, 4% of the votes cast and they are going to be in a position of such power. PR in action but not very sensibly!

A Towel Story

The view from my friend Jeremy and Therea's house in Stroud, a lovely way to start the day. One of the things I find when I stay anywhere, hotels, B&Bs or friends, is how irritating it is when the towels are like loin cloths. Being a bigger chap it's no fun. I can safely report that Jez and Theresa have passed the towel test with flying colours.

Statistics Don't Make A Tourist Boom

I'm back on the warpath against VisitScotland in today's Scotsman.

There was an almost deafening silence from all the parties in the run up to this election in regards to tourism; all in all it is extremely worrying. Why would Scotland's second biggest industry be so low down the agenda - is it because they don't understand it? In the Scotsman on 3rd May Alan Rankin, the outgoing chief executive of the public-private Scottish Tourism Forum, was critical of politicians in their lack of perceived ambition for the industry. He is particularly worried about the SNPs proposal 'to abolish the national marketing body VisitScotland and bring it under the control of a radically restructured Scottish Enterprise.' Will this happen if the SNP manage to form the next administration?

VisitScotland has a media campaign that tells us just how well they are doing, many, whose livelihoods depend on tourism, would disagree with them. Arguably much of what happens in Scottish tourism happens despite VisitScotland. However, the SNP's idea of putting it under Scottish Enterprise is equally flawed. There's no question, given the industries importance to the Scottish economy, that there should be a tourism minister. At the same time a radical change in VisitScotland's approach is vital. In particular their web site, which is dull, full of mistakes and inaccuracies, and it lacks sufficient accommodation to attract visitors to certain parts of Scotland. Above all else it fails to deliver on 'Scotland the Brand'.

An article on the same day headlined 'Tourism boom as visitor numbers rise 6%' masks many of the issues. Visitor numbers don't make for a tourism boom. They like all statistics mask a myriad amount of detail, not least the fact that the Kelvingrove Museum accounted for almost 2.5% of that growth. Next year on a like for like basis the scenario will likely change, just as it has done at the Scottish Parliament visitor attraction where numbers were down 26% - the newness has worn off. Visitor numbers include a great many local people. VisitScotland are past masters at peddling statistics, perhaps they should concentrate more on the real issues.

Much of the problem with VisitScotland is that it is a business run on the PFU model, with investors all keen to see a return on the money. At the same time it gets a large amount, the majority in fact, of its money from the Scottish Executive. VS looks to make money out of everything it does - especially when it comes to booking accommodation. There's a gap in the thinking here. On the one hand you have the information arm of the business and on the other the moneymaking and it ends up falling between two stools.

There has been a major ‘spring into summer’ promotion for the Borders (I use the word major as that is what their press release said). When you eventually find details of the promotion, after numerous clicks on the web site, you find ten properties offering accommodation in the Borders, that's ten in 1,800 square miles - eight self-catering and two hotels. It's pathetic.

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.

The Scottish Borders Are Being Undersold

In today’s Scotsman VisitScotland are bemoaning the lack of cash for marketing and the fact that it’s causing them to under perform – no0 surprise there then!

VisitScotland's marketing of the Borders is woeful and it's not a case of funding, it's more a case of incompetence and a failure to understand what the region offers. Statements like, 'we need to make sure that we move the whole Scottish industry up the value chain,' are indicative of the problem. There's a lot of fancy talk and not enough basic action.

On the VisitScotland web site in the Borders section and they are still promoting autumn and winter offers. Even on the Scottish Borders stand alone site run by the regional office of VisitScotland is totally underwhelming. Last week we had the announcement of a 'major spring into summer promotion'. Go looking for it on the web site and once you've found it there are just eight properties offering accommodation, there's one hotel and seven self-catering establishments. These are examples of more significant web site worries.For too long VisitScotland have failed to grasp the opportunity that is the Borders and until they do, or there's a change in the way the region is marketed, things will not improve. Tourism related employment accounts for around 8% of the workforce in the Scottish Borders and employs more people than agriculture, forestry and fishing, or construction. Yet it's still the lowest in Scotland and the average number of nights stay by overseas visitors is only half that of other areas. Just this week the Borders Party , which is fielding candidates in the local elections, is calling for funding for VisitScotland to be realigned. Amongst the other suggestions are:

• Revising the role of VisitScotland
• A new tourist organization, based in the Borders, playing to the real strengths of the region
• Opening a Borders Embassy in North America to strengthen genealogy based tourism
• Establishing a Reivers Trail that focuses on our fascinating, turbulent and unique past
• Establishing a World Heritage Park on both sides of the Borders
• Re-branding and introducing an exciting new image. The current logo and ‘corporate identity’ are dull and boring
• Abolishing the ‘Leading Short Break Destination’ Strategy. It says nothing.
• A stronger emphasis on recreation
Tourism chiefs have, for too long, downplayed the Reivers. We’re told that they don’t want to highlight ‘our violent past’. Try telling that to Americans with names such as Armstrong, Nixon, Johnson and Graham. America, outside of the rest of Britain, ought to be our biggest source of tourist revenue. With this in mind the Borders Party proposes the setting up of a Borders Embassy in North America to fully focus on promoting and selling our region.

It's not just about more money; it's about creativity in marketing and focus where it matters.

UPDATE
I've just discovered there's a Reiver Trail web site. It covers just a small area of the Borders south of Hawick. It is nothing to do with VisitScotland it is a privately run site.