Send the tourism quangos packing, says former chief

Published on Tuesday 31 May 2011 16:32

TOURISM and leisure quangos such as VisitScotland, EventScotland and Scotland Food and Drink should be privatised and brought together to create "Marketing Scotland plc", a former chairman of the tourism body has claimed.

Peter Lederer warned that Scotland needs to take responsibility for its own image and not rely so heavily on government input.

He said the quangos were already "along the road" to forming commercially run, industry-led organisations, following his own appointment to head Visit-Scotland ten years ago.

"It is not the government's industry - it is our industry - but the government does still have a role to play," said Mr Lederer, who stood down from the quango a year ago.

"It used to be government-led, with the industry following along behind. Now it should be industry-led, with the government playing a role. I personally believe that we, as an industry, can't stand around at the sidelines complaining.

"The board (of VisitScotland] is a lot more industry-focused than it was - I think I was the first chair to come from the industry. But the board now is more industry focused. That's happening.

"There is always scope to develop that further. VisitScotland and Events Scotland are right at the commercial end. Current chairman and chief executive Mike Cantlay and Malcolm Roughead are from the industry. They must think there are more opportunities to take - more of a role to play."

Mr Lederer added: "There is a natural direction of travel there - we are already well along that road, we just need to continue on in that way."

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EventScotland is technically part of VisitScotland, but is run at arm's length, led by its own chief operating officer Paul Bush, while Scotland Food and Drink is operated as a separate body.

Mr Lederer, who is chairman of Gleneagles Hotel and jeweller Hamilton & Inches - and is unveiled today as chairman of new Scottish food and drink marketing firm Taste Communications, launched by journalists Stephen Jardine and Jim Duff - called for the bodies to work closer together to market Scotland to the outside world. Closer ties were inevitable because of public sector cutbacks, he said.

"I think the organisations will begin selling as Marketing Scotland plc, rather than working as individual industries," he said. "Everyone who is involved in the positioning of Scotland, of making Scotland what it is, should work together."

He added: "One of the opportunities with government cuts is that those organisations will have to work much closer together because there won't be the resources around.

"Cross-fertilisation and working together would make the two and two achieved by each organisation make five. We are all going to have to think about how we do things."

Mr Lederer called for the Scottish public to be "ambassadors" for the country. "The point is that everybody's in the tourism business," he said. "If you're walking to your office and a visitor asks you for directions, how you treat them is a major thing. Every visitor is judging all of us all of the time. It's about how we work together to present ourselves as a country."

He warned that food and drink providers - which take 1 in every 5 spent by visitors to Scotland - need to ensure their offering is up to standard to avoid criticism on the internet which, he said, could be "very damaging".

"You can find great produce all over Scotland - great restaurants, great bars - but it's not always as consistent as you would like it to be," he said.

"We know from research that, however good our physical assets are, if people don't have good meals then they do not come away with a good experience.

"The customer has become so powerful. We worry every day at Gleneagles because the customer could be tweeting literally as they are eating. Even five years ago, that didn't exist."

The Scottish Government has recently committed to increasing the income from Scotland's food and drink industry to 12.5 billion by 2017 - up from the current level of 10bn.

"I think it is achievable - we have a great range of Scottish companies," said Mr Lederer, who recently hit out at Scottish tourism businesses for being "subsidiary junkies". "But the question is, do we get that message across? Are we good enough at internationalising Scottish companies?"

The former hotelier has invested his own money in Taste, which is to specialise in publicising Scotland's food and drink businesses.

The company is expected to represent brands with a commitment to Scottish produce - including luxury Edinburgh restaurant Ondine, which has already signed up as a client.

Mr Lederer's involvement in Taste is a coup for Mr Jardine, who quit his post at STV a week ago. Mr Jardine said: "He is quite simply one of the biggest names in the tourism and hospitality business,"

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "EventScotland is part of VisitScotland and both agencies work closely with Scotland Food and Drink to promote Scotland across the world. There are no plans to amalgamate or privatise these organisations."