Tourism |
RECOMMENDATION | COMMENT |
73. There must be clear recognition of the importance of tourism to the Scottish economy, society and the environment. The Parliament should therefore: | |
73.1 recognise tourism's importance in placing it in the political executive structure; | Tourism is at the heart of the Executive's economic policies. |
73.2 ensure adequate public funding to enable Scottish Tourist Board (STB) to continue to promote Scotland; | Funding for the national marketing agency, VisitScotland, has been increased. |
73.3 create an environment in which tourism can flourish by ensuring a level playing field in all fiscal and regulatory policy relating to tourism and by ensuring that the transport infrastructure encourages the growth of tourism; | A national tourism strategy was published in February 2000. The main achievements to date that flow from that are: - An industry website
- Training programmes in e-commerce for accommodation providers
- Arrangements for Joint Venture Partnership to further develop the national tourism website nearing completion
- New marketing campaigns
- Golf and genealogy strategies
- Quality advisers
- 1000 Modern Apprenticeships in tourism
- Management review of VisitScotland
A review of the strategy has been undertaken.
This resulted in a Framework for Action document that was published in March 2002. There are three priority areas: improving Scotland's position in the world tourism marketplace, increased focus on the consumer, and enhancing the status of the industry. |
73.4 ensure that there is an accurate statistical Scottish database in all matters affecting tourism; and |
73.5 remove artificially restrictive boundaries between different public sector expenditure blocks so that NDPBs can operate more effectively. |
74. Action is required to stabilise the funding for the area tourist network. This can best be done by channelling ring-fenced public funding through STB. | A review of the local support structure has been announced. |
75. The Parliament should have the tourism dimension fully in mind when negotiating the successor initiatives to current European funding. | Tourism continues to benefit from EU funding. |
76. The Parliament needs to ensure improved and effective application of resources designed to develop tourism and administered by varying bodies so that there is a strong strategic link between marketing, transport infrastructure, product developments and training in tourism. | This is a feature of the Framework for Action proposals. |
77. Mechanisms must be available to ensure that priorities identified by the work of the Tourism Futures Group can be addressed promptly by the Parliament and where appropriate acted on quickly. | The priorities were addressed in the national tourism strategy. Parliament has debated the strategy on a number of occasions. |
78. An early review by Parliament of preliminary thinking on a new Strategic Plan for the Scottish Tourist Board is essential if it is to be carried into effect promptly and capitalise on the momentum created by the Parliament itself. | See 77 |