Visitscotland.com

[Adventurelife]

At long last something seems to be getting done but no detail on the future plan.

This has been a money pit from the start and anyone with an ounce of internet savy could have told them that you cannot be all things to all people on the net. ( I have been telling them for years in a manner) but I suspect more than me have to to get these changes.

Still not confident about the direct they will take though. Tourism is Scotland biggest industry and one that cannot be outsourced elsewhere, but it can be enhanced or damaged by many factors.

I really want Visitscotland to focus on just marketing Scotland and leave all the detail to the businesses in each sector. Our huge market is just over the border in England and that is where 90% of their effort should go. I noticed they sent a delegation to India this year

Big potential market for sure but not when the average earnings are a couple of £ a day! Maybe they were just planning for the future

Link to details below and rant over
VisitScotland.com brought into public ownership

[Moray Kitchen Fitter]

I must admit I have never been very impressed with visitscotland.com, it ultimately could offer what it intented to but not being run the way it was. I agree that this kind of organisation is absolutley essential for the continued development of the Scottish tourism industry (vital in a financial climate like this!) but it needs to be done right.

For a business such as yours it should be made as simple as possible to get coverage and to be highlighted as a reason for visiting Scotland. From what I have been lead to believe from others dealing with VS, up until now it has worked harder at making a profit from within Scotland rather than selling the benefits of this country to specific target markets.

I too hope that this is a change for the better, looks like we will just have to wait and see.

Regards,

Gordon

[Adventurelife]

It has been very profit driven but then it had to be as there was a lot of private money involved as well as tax payers money. They still managed to make huge losses year on year though.

They just need to wake up and figure out their job is to market Scotland as a destination at the high level to the the best marketplaces with England being first.

They have the ability to promote Scotland at a level no private or group of private businesses could do. They could increase the footfall into the country and then it is up to the private businesses to compete. Those than can and know what they are doing will and those that are run badly will fade away.

Currently they are obsessed with getting into the detail of every business sector and introducing a whole range of quality driven projects that are administration heavy.

There strategy of added value as we are a relatively high cost destination is correct, however, on a weekly basis they undermine that strategy by contacting businesses asking for big discount or 2 for 1 promotions for their websites. I have tried pointing it that the strategy is not joined up but hey they are the experts