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Meeting of the Parliament 21 June 2012

21 Jun 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Visitor Economy

Ewing, Fergus SNP Inverness and Nairn Watch on SPTV

There is universal generosity and courtesy. Of course, I hope that Mary Scanlon will also be able to attend. The First Minister yesterday said that my four-year-old daughter will thoroughly enjoy it but that I might find it scary in parts.

The chair of VisitScotland recently said that

“if VisitScotland were to commission a movie, we could not ask for more than Brave”.

I entirely endorse that statement. “Brave” showcases Scotland’s rich history and captures the beauty, nature, magic and humour of Scotland and it is simply the biggest ever film opportunity to get Scotland seen on the worldwide stage. “Brave” is being released in 72 countries and it is anticipated that it will be seen by 200 million people in the United Kingdom and Europe alone. The film has been translated into more than 30 languages, which means that Disney Pixar has had the interesting challenge of finding more than 30 Billy Connolly sound-alikes.

I recently visited VisitScotland’s offices in Leith, where I spoke to some of the staff and saw for myself the efforts being made by VisitScotland to convert cinema-goers into visitors to Scotland. Through a combination of Disney’s worldwide reach and VisitScotland’s marketing expertise, we are confident that “Brave” will boost the Scottish economy by £140 million.

VisitScotland has also been busy launching a revitalised website promoting Scotland across the world. It has worked hard to iron out initial teething issues and the site has received positive feedback from many quarters.

Most important of all, this week I witnessed the tourism industry itself, through the tourism leadership group, launch a new tourism strategy for Scotland. It is a first: a strategy developed for the industry, by the industry. The strategy stresses the importance of industry leadership and participation, of strong leadership in businesses and of all businesses being actively involved in local tourism groups and working together to develop customers’ overall experience.

As all members know, of course, many tourism businesses and business leaders are already community leaders, and perhaps they promote their areas with more vigour and enthusiasm than anybody else. The strategy celebrates what has already been done and invokes and invites colleagues to achieve even more.

The Scottish Tourism Alliance, which is the industry membership body, will bring all those groups together. It will provide leadership and support, and will monitor progress. The strategy shows how growth will come from turning our assets into top-quality experiences, and notes that all of us at the national, local and business levels must know our customers and their expectations, and act on that knowledge. It is relentlessly focused on the customer and the customer’s needs so that they have a memorable and pleasant visit to this country.

I record my sincere thanks to the chair of the tourism leadership group, Stephen Leckie. I think that he is in the chamber somewhere, although I have not spotted him, which is unusual, as he is a person whom it is difficult not to spot.

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Meeting of the Parliament 21 June 2012

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