Farewell deep-fried Mars Bar - hello Cool Caledonia: Lonely Planet on Scotland

Published on Tuesday 10 May 2011 18:24

SCOTLAND finally appears to have shed its global image as an industrial powerhouse that can also boast a unique heritage of castles, tartan and heather while still being the home of the deep-fried Mars Bar.

LONELY PLANET'S VERDICT ON GLASGOW

2011

'Unpretentious, gregarious and evolving at a dizzying pace, Glasgow defines urban renewal, a concept that the city has embraced with enormous vigour. Once synonymous with bleak povertyand grim desperation, Glasgow has managed to turn things around to the point that it's now a byword for style and chic'

1997

'If the English cities are too bland for your taste Glasgow should be the antidote. What makes it appealing is its vibrancy and energy'

In the latest instalment of the forthcoming Lonely Planet guide, Scotland's re-emergence over the past 20 years as a hip, savvy, culturally eclectic magnet for tourists appears to have been made complete. Those who have come to the country over the past two decades to write about its attractions have reported on a country that was finding its own identity and confidence, moving away from the cliches of old.

In its latest publication, Lonely Planet Great Britain has lauded Edinburgh Castle as "one of Scotland's most atmospheric, most popular - and most expensive - tourist attractions", while describing Balmoral Castle's main attraction as "learning about Highland estate management, rather than royal revelations".

However, for its consideration of the Highlands and Islands, the guide takes on an almost poetic tone. It states: "Scotland's vast melancholy soul is here, an epic land whose stark beauty indelibly imprints upon the hearts of those who see it."

Contemporary Glasgow is characterised in the Lonely Planet's introduction as "unpretentious, gregarious and evolving at a dizzying pace", to the point where it has become "a byword for style chic", obliterating references in the 1997 guide to its sectarian past and its dubious honour as the home to the "Glasgow Kiss".

Edinburgh, while endlessly lauded for its stunning architecture in the mid-90s, was tarnished by the city's association with drug addiction, as the Lonely Planet Guide pointedly noted: "The flipside to the gloss is a thriving drugs scene and distressing Aids problem, aspects of life portrayed in sordid detail in Trainspotting".

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However, the new guide characterises the capital as the home of "top shops, world-class restaurants and a bacchanalia of bars to enjoy".

"This is a city of pub crawls and impromptu music sessions, mad-for-it clubbing and all night parties, overindulgence, late nights and wandering home through cobbled streets at dawn," it continues.

Interestingly, fellow travel publication, the Rough Guide of 1994, made reference to the party-hard character of Scotland, though the tone was somewhat different: "Scots indulge in their national pastime which, we learn, is the pub crawl, 'a drunken trawl through as many pubs as possible in one night'."

But some things never change. Two decades on John O'Groats is still dismissed by the Lonely Planet as being a tourist trap, while Fort William is tagged as being extremely wet.

According to Neil Wilson, who worked on the Lonely Planet Great Britain guide, the single biggest shift noted in Scotland has been in its culinary sophistication.

"Probably the most obvious change from 15 to 20 years ago is the ever-increasing number of good-quality places to eat - not just restaurants, but also cafes, tearooms and pubs - and the appearance of boutique hotels, which seem to have inspired a new wave of 'designer style' guesthouses and B&Bs, which often offer exceptional value," he said.

"Scotland has definitely outgrown its undeserved reputation as the home of the deep-fried Mars Bar, and can now hold its own as a gastronomic destination." John Lennon, professor of tourism at Glasgow Caledonian University, said that travel guides on Scotland have evolved. "They've become more sophisticated and more segmented. The key to this were two things: the first was Pete Irvine's book, Scotland the Best, which when it first came out, was revolutionary and it was very subjective and quirky," he said.

"The next revolution is the internet, with the advent of Trip Advisor, the chat rooms that share recommendations."

However, despite the change in tone and depiction of Scotland, Denise Hill, head of international marketing at the national tourist board VisitScotland, believes that travel guides have only so much influence on travellers.

"Realistically, people are doing a hell of a lot of research ahead of buying a guidebook. At the point that they are buying one, they've already decided that they are coming to Scotland. What they are using the guidebooks for are the nuts and bolts. People are increasingly looking online for information but also for peer recommendations."

Ms Hill said that she was unperturbed by negative comments in guidebooks, as she believed that people nowadays were looking for a broad spectrum of opinions to find a realistic depiction of the country.