This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Progress report on tourism
07/06/2004
The Executive's second progress report on the Scottish
Tourism Framework for Action is published today.
Tourism Minister Frank McAveety said it showed postive
achievements in strong growth in the short-break sector and
success in developing working partnerships within the
industry.
He added:
"Much has been achieved in the tourism industry
recently, but the challenge now is for everyone to support
the goal of increasing the value of the industry and work
towards making this a reality.
"We have seen strong growth in the short break sector,
particularly with visitors from the UK. VisitScotland has
developed brands like the cultural and heritage tourism,
cities and business, activity holidays, and wildlife
portfolios.
"We have seen significant upgrades and improved design
of visitscotland.com which has resulted in a 60% increase
in user sessions. And we have seen new initiatives aimed at
building stronger links and more effective working
partnerships between and within tourism and tourism-related
sectors.
"Our vision is to make Scotland a must-visit,
must-return destination. That is why we have increased
VisitScotland's marketing budget, started developmental
work enhancing VisitScotland's Quality Assurance Scheme,
and begun developing the Area Tourist Board structure into
a new network of tourism hubs.
The Minister continued:
"There is momentum within the sector for the Scottish
tourism industry to play a bigger role in driving forward
and achieving growth. This progress report demonstrates
that we are continuing to make excellent progress in
achieving the objectives set in New Strategy for Scottish
Tourism.
"Tourism is everyone's business and by rising to the
challenges we will all fully realise the economic and
employment benefits that tourism in Scotland can
bring."
Published in March 2002, Tourism Framework for Action is
a three-year plan setting out what needs to be done by the
public and private sectors.
Tourism is important to the Scottish economy as it is
currently worth £4.5 billion a year and accounts for around
215,000 jobs, or 8 per cent of the Scottish total.
3. The Tourism Framework for Action Steering and
Implementation Groups were set up in 2002 and are made up
of tourism representatives from the public and private
sectors.