Meeting of the Parliament 02 December 2014
There is a huge amount of good news around tourism this year.
Those of us in the east end of Glasgow had the Commonwealth games—although I accept that they went slightly beyond that area. I volunteered at the Scottish exhibition and conference centre as a Clyde-sider, as did Patricia Ferguson, from whom I am sure we will hear.
According to the official reports the games went extremely well—that was my experience, too—and any complaints that I heard tended to come from Glaswegians who were unable to use their usual routes around the SECC and elsewhere. People from further afield seemed to be entirely positive about the games.
In the east end, the venues and athletes village are now available for wider use. I understand that the village will start to receive permanent residents in January. The venues continue to be used by communities and for spectator events—for example, Glasgow Rocks basketball games are taking place in the Emirates arena.
Less directly linked to the games are infrastructure improvements throughout the Clyde gateway area, which covers part of my constituency and the Rutherglen constituency. Projects such as the M74 completion, Dalmarnock station and the east end regeneration route benefit tourists as well as everyone else.
The decontamination of land is hugely important for the longer term, although it is expensive. Work is currently about halfway through. On Friday I attended Clyde Gateway urban regeneration company’s annual meeting. It was good to hear that the Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and South Lanarkshire Council are working together to fund work. I hope that that commitment will continue.
There is a need for more hotels and restaurants in the east end of Glasgow. I think that there is a market there, not least because Celtic Park and other sports facilities attract a sizeable number of visitors from a wide area. The west and south of Glasgow have quality hotels and restaurants, and I would like there to be such development in the east end, too.
An aspect of Glasgow tourism that we have not cracked is camping. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but some holiday makers want to spend less money on accommodation so that more is available for meals, drinks and visits to attractions. The last time I was in Dublin, I stayed at an excellent campsite that was served by a regular bus service into the city centre. I think that there is a demand for that kind of facility in our cities, too. I mentioned camping, so I will also say what a good holiday I had this year on Coll and Tiree. I suspect that I was meant to be out campaigning rather than having a holiday, but I felt reassured when I met John Swinney and his family on the ferry between the islands. Both islands have very acceptable campsites, although it has to be said that Coll’s campsite was extremely quiet.
That leads me to ask whether we could do more to encourage people in Scotland to take holidays in Scotland. I still meet people who have never been north of Perth and who have never been to an island. At the end of my secondary 1 year, a couple of our schoolteachers took a group of us on a trip round the Highlands. I remember one of them repeatedly saying beforehand, “This will be the best 10 days of your little lives.” Well, even if it was not the best 10 days of my life, it was certainly extremely good. Surely we should try to ensure that every youngster gets a school trip in Scotland during their time at secondary school.
The Finance Committee had an excellent meeting on Arran yesterday, and it was not surprising that tourism came up strongly in our workshops with local business leaders, HIE, council representatives and other people. A few points struck me from my 24 hours on the island, and they might be relevant for Scotland as a whole.
First, it struck me that local organisations there seem to be working well together. For example, the shower gel in our hotel was from local company Arran Aromatics. Secondly, organisations are targeting the top end of the market, in the knowledge that they cannot compete at the cheap and cheerful end. Thirdly, Arran has managed to expand its tourist season to up to 40 weeks. Operators offer cheaper accommodation at this time of year while still making money from food, drink and other sales. Fourthly, most visitors to Arran are from the south and west of Scotland, but it is envisaged that there are growth areas overseas, which are being targeted. Fifthly, people are looking at areas of weakness, such as the lack of marinas. Yachts are popular on the Clyde and the west coast of Scotland, but there are very few places in Arran where yachts can be brought alongside. Visitors from yachts spend considerably more money than most other visitors spend.
I was struck by VisitScotland’s study for European tourism day, which suggests that people from different countries find different things attractive about Scotland. As The Herald put it yesterday:
“Germans enjoy hillwalking, while the French like our food. The Spanish are keen to explore Scotland’s cultural landmarks, the Italians like the cool climate and most Dutch visitors simply enjoy the atmosphere.”
We do not want to be too stereotypical; if we are going down that route a certain amount of humour is probably needed. However, the study suggests that our cooler, damper climate is actually attractive to Italians and others who find their own summers a bit too hot.
Finally, the food and drink sector deserves a particular mention. As I think Bruce Crawford said, it represents some 18 per cent of our overseas exports. It is also an attraction for tourists coming to Scotland, because they get to visit production sites and to sample goods near their place of origin. The drink sector has tended to be rather dominated by whisky. I accept that it is extremely important, but I personally do not like whisky. However, we have a very good range of beers, so perhaps we should get a little bit more excited about them. On Sunday evening in Arran, I was drinking Arran Blonde, and in the east end of Glasgow we have the excellent West microbrewery. However, here in the Parliament, we insist on providing wines that come from elsewhere—as do some hotels—at our receptions. We could try a bit harder to promote our own products. That is what both tourists and other visitors would like.
15:55