Scotsman Archive

IT HAD been estimated that 35 million of the English had never seen Scotland, said Mr W A Nicholson, manager and secretary of the Scottish Tourist Board, when he addressed Edinburgh Rotarians yesterday.

Certain factors, he pointed out, had prevented them from coming over the Border. For those living in the South, it was cheaper to go to the Continent because of the high rail fares to Scotland. "Therefore, we have been campaigning for some time to get a reduction in these fares," he said. "We feel it would be better for the railways to fill their trains at a cheaper rate than to send them up here half, or even a quarter, empty."

Mr Nicholson said that last year at least 2,517,178 people made use of the sleeping facilities available to them in Scottish hotels, boarding houses and apartments. Forty per cent of them came from England and Wales, and 10 per cent from overseas. The remainder were Scottish. Edinburgh had the largest number of visitors, 541,322; with Glasgow second, 461,111.

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