SNP keen to free tourist industry's hostages

Published on Thursday 26 July 2007 00:10

YOU have to hand it to the SNP, they are fearless in offering hostages to fortune. John Swinney's remarks yesterday about Scotland's growth rate being "simply not good enough" once again raises the volume on the extended drum roll before the release of figures for which Swinney, Mather & Co have responsibility.

This is admirable. Where the previous administration dissolved disappointing GDP results in a warm bath of excuses, this one gives itself no hiding place. It makes a difference or it loses credibility and, with it, its hopes of ever achieving its principle aim.

The new enterprise and tourism minister, Jim Mather, will say more about the difference it intends to make in the sector at an unprecedented "seminar" of 40-plus tourism movers and shakers next month.

The St Andrews House meeting is a final testing of the waters before Mather makes his eagerly/anxiously awaited announcement on the "refocusing" of the enterprise and tourism quangos.

He will know already that there is little enthusiasm within tourism - "the Heineken industry" (it reaches parts of Scotland...) - for another bout of structural change. He also knows that it must perform better if those hostages are to be saved.

Scotland's most valuable industry after oil and gas is fractious and underperforming, its great success stories being obscured by energy-sapping squabbles. Its constituent parts would love to be convinced that Mather will lead from the front.

Some of tourism's current problems, like the strong pound and bad weather, are beyond even Mather's beloved fiscal powers. Others, like the poverty of bureaucratic engagement with the industry grass roots, and the lack of faith in Scotland's global shop window, VisitScotland.com, are more susceptible to political intervention.

In any case, the drive to meet a public-private target of 50 per cent revenue growth by 2015 - criticised at the time as being too modest - is looking unachievable without step changes in the level of government and private-sector investment, and that is what many will be hoping to hear about.

They never received much inspiration from the previous tourism minister, Patricia Ferguson. A former Labour party official and McConnell loyalist, she was rhetorically "passionate" about tourism, but all but invisible to the industry.

Infinitely more business-savvy and self-confident, and far less inclined to take dictation from the quangocracy, Mather is more sympathetic to tourism operators. They will even forgive the fact that the dedicated post of tourism minister has been abolished if he can sell them a vision of a synchronised drive on tourism and enterprise that can work.

The minister is giving nothing away in advance, but it is notable that he has asked along not just the industry "usual suspects" of Gleneagles boss and VisitScotland chairman Peter Lederer and VisitScotland.com boss Marco Truffelli, as well as public sector bosses (Scottish Enterprise and HIE etc), plus business group and transport leaders.

There is also strong representation from the private-sector thinkers who represent the future of the Scottish industry; Robin Worsnop of Rabbie's Trail Burners (also head of the Tourism Innovation Group); Alasdair Campbell of Haggis Adventures; Freda Rapson, of Jacobite Cruises, and Alan Rankin of the Aviemore Destination Management Organisation.

Also included in Mather's big tent are those to whom cosy consensus under the current set up is anathema, notably Alan Keith, whose demolition of some of industry assumptions (see www.reclaimvs.com) have highlighted the gap between the industry leadership and the grass roots.

Mather will no doubt be pressed on where he stands on the big issues of local representation, and the national web portal. In the meantime he confines himself to saying that "the government regards tourism as a key sector of monumental importance to the Scottish economy", pledging to do "all it can to support its growth, working closely with VisitScotland and the enterprise agencies to ensure that they are supporting the tourism industry in the best possible way".

He also adds an interesting "but".

"Ministers also want to work very closely with all parts of the industry itself, to support it in taking the lead in its growth."

It would be a mistake to judge perceptions of VisitScotland solely on the comments on The Scotsman messageboards, where it is routinely portrayed, and savaged, as haughty and inept. In fact the agency is well-regarded, even by habitual moaners, for the strength of its international marketing operation, which has produced a steadily rising graph of overseas visitors, in increasingly tough international conditions. Less verifiably, it also claims that its quality assurance scheme is an international model and that it is making progress engaging with businesses, allowing them, for example, to pick and chose exactly which campaigns they want to get involved in - golf or the Polish market say - and to engage with flexibility.

"They know their markets well, they do a good job on the funds they have," is one typical comment from a thoughtful industry player.

"Their overseas marketing is excellent, their work in the periphery [outside of marketing] does not amount to much," is another.

In any case, the SNP cannot rely on the status quo to produce the economic results that, alone, will get it re-elected. It explicitly wants VisitScotland to "do things differently", and we will find out what he means by that soon enough.