Hansard

As a member of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, I am delighted to speak in this debate, particularly as it comes on the back of yesterday’s announcement that Royal Troon will once again host the open golf championship in 2016. Of course, I would say that as someone who comes from Ayr and is a golfer. When, at lunchtime, I attended a meeting of the cross-party group on golf, I was delighted to discover that golf itself, which generates £223 million in revenue and supports 4,000 jobs, is to become a specific business sector under the VisitScotland umbrella.

Not only are we hosting the open, but Scotland itself is open. Last year’s figures show that although international visits are down, spend is up; that domestic and UK visitors and spend are up; and that, in 2011, there was a 9 per cent increase in overnight visitors and a 14 per cent increase in spend.

Although we are open now in the summer, we have big campaigns and focused seasonal campaigns, such as winter white, to increase trade in quiet months and show that Scotland is always open for visitor business, all year round.

Tourism—the visitor economy—is a major income sector for Scotland. If one has any doubts about that, I suggest they look at the briefing that we received today from the Scottish Sports Association—sport being a billion-pound industry in itself. The sector sits in the first division of our economy, along with food and drink, life sciences, renewables, oil and gas, and engineering and manufacturing. “Destination Scotland” it is and will be. While we continue to look at the continual improvement processes that allow us to consider our local structures for tourism, the quality of tourism and focused marketing, let there be no doubt that the new tourism strategy—which is, as has been said, a credit to the TLG—is a strategy of leadership and growth that shows signs of the inestimable success that we might expect of the sector. Tourism in Scotland, under that leadership strategy, is important because it is the creator of a current annual spend of £4 billion—a figure that is growing. Compared to tourism in the rest of the UK, tourism in Scotland is a disproportionate contributor that supports 200,000 jobs. It is the harbinger of a large number of jobs in our rural economies, as Mary Scanlon said.

The major international economic downturn could have set into turmoil our early aspiration—which was set in vastly different economic circumstances—to grow the sector by 50 per cent by 2016. However, we continue to succeed in racing to meet substantial growth in visitor business. There is little doubt that over recent years there has been a change in attitude in the sector; a change to a “can do, will do” approach. I applaud—as the minister did—the Scottish Tourism Alliance and VisitScotland for bringing about that change in attitude.

I have recently visited tourism organisations in South Scotland where I, too, received an invitation. I was excited to be invited to meet ABBA, until I found out that it was not Benny and the gang who sang “Waterloo”, but the Ayrshire Bed and Breakfast Association. It was exciting, just the same.

Let us welcome the 15.7 million trips to Scotland last year, the 63.1 million nights spent in Scotland and, as I mentioned, the £4 billion-worth of spend in 2011. Let us applaud—as the minister did—the leadership of Glasgow and other places in securing much-needed business and conference tourism.

As I flick through the spring edition of “EventScotland News” and look at the many positive headlines, I get somewhat excited; a feeling that is couched alongside pride in what Scotland is doing in the sector. Glasgow is to bid for the 2018 youth Olympic games, the Scottish open championship has announced a new title sponsor, and Glasgow is to host the 2015 international Paralympic swimming championships. We have had the Curtis cup and we will again have Celtic connections. We will also have the European 470 class boat championships at Largs. Today we will have the big concert at Stirling. There is much more going on in Scotland than we have ever seen. All those events are embroidery to the winning years tapestry, which is interwoven with individual, non-packaged holidays.

The TLG strategy is in place, the challenges and the aspirations have been drawn up and organisations are being improved to underpin them. However, one can imagine how much better all those achievements would be if we were to be released from the yoke of the excessive VAT charges that have been imposed on the sector, freed from the shackles of an antediluvian visa process and released from the pernicious and iniquitous air passenger duty, which is a bolted lock on air travel and a blight on the huge possibilities for airports such as Prestwick international.

Brand marketing is very important in the tourist industry—