Hansard

This afternoon’s debate gives us the opportunity to recognise the diversity of celebrations and festivals that take place in Scotland over the winter months. However, I want to take a moment to reflect on the tragic accident that happened in George Square in the run-up to Christmas. Our thoughts are with those who lost loved ones in the midst of the Christmas festivities; it was heartbreaking to see families experience such shock and loss at that time of year, and I wish all those injured a full recovery. Again, we saw Glasgow having to pull together to deal with a difficult time, and it showed how the idea of community lies at the heart of the city.

Although the focus of the official winter festivals programme is the period from St Andrew’s day in November to Burns night later this month, for many Hallowe’en and bonfire night mark the start of many exciting opportunities to gather and celebrate during the dark months. Winter festivals do not always mean big gatherings; they are also about the community-led celebrations that mark our winter months. All of them play an important role in our lives, support our local and national economies, boost the tourist trade, promote Scotland as a year-round destination and showcase and share some of the best of Scotland’s rich culture.

Winter festivals have grown in popularity in recent years and are increasingly seen as an important part of community life. Scotland is a northern country and, as our days get shorter, winter festivals provide a focus for celebration and entertainment. The winter festivals programme, which is delivered and supported by EventScotland, promotes landmark cultural days by offering a wide range of major ticketed and free events that encourage participation. However, we need to strike an appropriate balance between the commercial aspect of such events, with a recognition of the importance of that aspect to their viability, and the need for inclusivity at a time of year that for many people can be expensive.

The popularity and success of the festivals can be seen in the figures in VisitScotland’s briefing. In particular, Edinburgh’s hogmanay programme has grown over the years; indeed, it was the only festival in the Discovery Channel’s recent list of top 25 world travel experiences, which is pretty impressive. Increasingly, people who come to the city at this time of year are spoilt for choice and although the big events remain the focus, other innovative and imaginative events are springing up. Now in its third year, the Scot:Lands event, which the cabinet secretary mentioned, takes audiences on a new year’s day treasure hunt through a series of venues in the old town, staging music, dance, film and other events.

Although there is a focus on our cities, which are the key tourism destinations, winter festivals also encourage people to go further afield. Last year’s St Andrew’s day celebration in St Andrews attracted almost 10,000 people to the town over the course of the weekend, which boosted the local economy significantly. Burns night events extend from Dumfries and Galloway’s big Burns supper, an imaginative and modern celebration of the bard’s work that has grown in recent years, to the “Haggis, Beasts and Tatties” event at Eden Court in Inverness.

It is smart and indeed important to highlight those events that are uniquely Scottish, as such an approach encourages people to visit us in order to have a special experience. However, we must ask whether we are doing enough to promote what we have and to promote and support international marketing; as we have read today, Scotland’s export figures stalled in the final quarter because of a depressed European market, and we need to be flexible and look at where we need to grow future tourism markets. To ensure the continued success of our festivals and Scotland’s brand in general, we must do more and look at new and innovative ways of promoting our unique and sought-after brand across the world.

I was pleased to read yesterday that VisitAberdeen is pushing forward with plans to develop a Chinese version of its tourism website. We all know about the benefits of overseas tourism to Scotland and of the particular strength of the Chinese tourism trade. It is estimated that the Chinese spend £125 billion on overseas leisure and business. To put that into context, it is apparently on average 50 per cent more than Americans spend.

We know from recent surveys that Chinese tourists appreciate the countryside, built heritage and culture. Scotland has all three in abundance, so we are in a prime position to benefit from their tourism. However, according to yesterday’s report, only 1 per cent of the Chinese population speak English. Multilingual websites are therefore an important tool in promoting what our country has to offer to as many countries as possible.

Promoting Scotland as a destination is increasingly culturally focused. We cannot rely on our weather as our selling point; as we saw with the unfortunate cancellation of Stirling’s hogmanay celebrations due to high winds, it can still have a negative impact on our festivities.

Winter festivals provide opportunities for business and activity over the traditionally quieter seasons. For example, I recently met representatives from the Scottish Showmen’s Guild and heard that the growth in winter festivals supports its members outwith the fairs season.

While the growing success of the major festivals is important, particularly to tourism and the economy, smaller local festivals are increasingly playing an important part in the local economy and vibrancy of an area. They are increasingly innovative and imaginative and, with the involvement of the local authority, arts trusts, local groups or schools, they are often more inclusive and collaborative and engage more directly with the community. The Kirkcaldy lantern parade in the run-up to Christmas was a beautiful example of community engagement. It had lantern-making workshops so that people could join the parade, a bringing of the light song composed for the event and a fireworks display. Is the cabinet secretary confident that we have an integrated strategy and that enough support and advice are being targeted at more regional and local events, which might not return the big tourism figures but provide community activity and celebration and support a domestic tourism market?

We also see local festivals supporting the retail sector. Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular, so town-centre festivals provide a way of broadening the experience of shopping and help to keep our high streets alive by ensuring that they get a share of the festive shopping. We need to continue to change the way in which we use retail and public space. As our amendment says, I recognise the hard work of all the volunteers, community groups, trade associations and small businesses that do so much to make such events happen.

This debate is to be followed by a debate on mental health, which is a huge health challenge of our times. While that debate will no doubt attempt to address broad and complex issues, if we are talking about health and wellbeing as factors that underpin good mental health, we should acknowledge that winter can be a challenging and particularly isolating time for many people. In a small way, winter festivals or winter activity can provide important and valuable opportunities for people to come together, socialise and benefit from a collective experience. We should do all that we can to support them and to encourage wide participation.

I move amendment S4M-11976.2, to insert at end:

“; also recognises the many local and community-organised winter festivals that take place throughout Scotland, and commends the hard work of volunteers, local groups and small businesses that make such events a success”.