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Sorry, did I miss the massive change the SNP would introduce

The way the Scottish Executive under Labor has fostered tourism is nothing short of a national scandal. Switch on a TV here in the US all you see is come to Ireland, Ireland is great, (which it is) Scotland - zip, nada, zilch. This takes a special kind of incompetence, so many people here in the States have a positive view of Scotland and the Executive have done nothing to tap into it. Shameful. So you go Alex, makes us all proud!

We would be better letting Ireland show us how to run a tourist industry than a London First mentality. You'll never know till they go. It's time

This is a great idea. Scotland has the potential to have one of the best tourist industries in the world by promoting our famous heritage, culture, natural history and scenery. Hopefully the SNP can win next week as it will be refreshing to have a government which actually aims to promote tourism in a much more commited way. We can learn a lot from how Ireland has marketed itself overseas.

I agree that Scotland is not very well advertised in the tourist industry abroad but the last thing that is needed is for the different areas fighting amongst each other to attract people. Lets promote Scotland as a whole.

I thinks It's worth mentioning that Scotlands Tourist industry is 4 times larger than in Ireland. The powers that be in Ireland are looking to scotland as the benchmark and in this regard they have set about promoting Ireland with a vengance just to catch up! Its also worth noting that America represents one of Irelands largest export markets and source of inward investment. Until recently Ireland has not had to look to develop tourism to the same extent as Scotland as its economy has seen spectacular growth over the past 15years in other,more lucrative areas. While I might appear to be in support of the way our tourism industry is being promoted, I do believe that it is essential that Scotland is able to run its own tourism industry and not be subserviant to someone elses agenda; Like as happens now.

This is a great idea. At last promoting the tourist industry, which is very important to Scotland. Its true what another poster has said about Scotlands promotion overseas. Ive been a regular visiter to Portugal and Ive never ever seen any promotion or advert on tv or paper, yet will see adverts and promotion for England and Ireland. There is also an annual seminar and conference for the airline industry, which is about promoting and setting up routes, enticing airlines to fly into new places etc. I think the Scottish Executive only attended 1, but decided to leave it to BAA of all people! Labour and the Libdems are a clueless bunch of idiots when it comes to an industry like tourism. The best that Jack McConnel could come up with is the cringe worthy 'Best wee Country in the World' slogan

As an accommodation provider I can only agree with that Scotland is poorly promoted. Matters appear to be getting worse! Our visitor numbers to Kelso seem to be down around 50% on the same period last year. While I agree with the SNP that something needs to be done I beleive that money would be better spent on the job in hand rather than re-branding. Furthermore the budget could come from closing the call centre and letting the local TIC's do the job they should be doing and having the web site run by a Scottish company rather than an overseas company.

I agree that the competing elements is totally unnecessary. There are benefits to be made between areas being promoted together that breaking it into regions will miss. One way of increasing profile is to increase the budget. Not sure how yet another reorganisation/restructure is going to secure that!

The first rule for tourism is to show people overseas what you have and where you are. As far as Australia is concerned in relation to Scottish tourism advertising, there is nothing, nada, zilch, bugger all. There has been nothing for the 3 years I have been here either on tv radio or printed media trying to spotlight Scotland. Thats what your union is doing for you.

Healthy competition between regions provides overall benefits. The centralised network set up by VisitScotland has destroyed the sense of ownership that businesses had in their local board. There is no reason why Scotland as a whole should not be effectively marketed by VS while regional organisations promote their own destinations as was the case in the past. Removal of the PPP eTourism Ltd is another essential, with teh website being returned to public ownership. See details on the reclaimvs.com campaign website.

To promote tourism we need to cut down on our Anglophobia. Every one of my English friends who has visited Scotland has come across anti-English feeling. We still get more tourists from England than any other country but we are doing our best to scare the English away,

Couple of points on the above. The key element that seems to have been overlooked in the statement as it is, is the critical one. The SNP are recognising that Scottish Tourism is an Industry and that as such it should be moved to the Department of Enterprise and Life Long Learning and taken up from the current ministerial brief for the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport. Our tourism businesses have been involved in a number of ways with the officials at the Scottish Executive and it was always strange that the Labour Government were on one hand recognising the value of tourism as an industry to the economy yet putting it in with a department headed by education. The change in status of tourism to being handled by Enterprise Department officials is not only logical it could make a critical difference to attitudes, speed of decision making and real business recognition. Tourism was at arguably at its most prominent in teh Scottish Parliament when Henry McLeish was driving forward projects as Minister for Enteprise and Life Long Learning. On the issue of competitive regional marketing initiatives I can accept Alan Keith's comment on competition being healthy, however not when it's public money it isn't. Private sector consortia and product groupings can do what they like with their own funding and if that means creation of destination marketing groups then that is their decision. Destination Marketing however must be driven with a core Scottish message and funding overlap, duplication, mixed messages must be avoided. To reinforce the point however making Tourism part of the Enterprise budget is a major step forward and one that Patricia Ferguson and all of her predecessors have rejected.

I've no problem with Ian McCaig's post except for one thing. Regional destination marketing [italic]should[/italic] be supported with public money simply because it is the logical basis for industry development. All regional marketing by its nature carries a core Scottish message and the comment about "mixed messages having to be avoided" is in my opinion, nonsense. Dumfries, Aviemore, Loch Lomond or Scotland - it doesn't matter which as they all promote Scottish tourism. If there is concern about funding overlap, less effective national marketing could be reduced.