Tourist Boards (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
I welcome everybody to the 14th meeting in 2006 of the Enterprise and Culture Committee. We have apologies from Michael Matheson and from Jamie Stone, who will be late.
We are taking evidence on the Tourist Boards (Scotland) Bill from the minister, Patricia Ferguson. I welcome her and will allow her to introduce her team and say a few words about the bill.
I am joined today by Kirsten Davidson and Gaynor Davenport, both of whom have been working on this project for some time. I thank the committee for inviting me to give evidence on the bill.
As members know, VisitScotland has been in operation for a year as an integrated tourism network. Now is probably a good time to put the organisational structure on a proper legal footing. The integration project was a huge undertaking, bringing together 15 organisations into one, while at the same time maintaining vital local links. In my view and that of others around the network, it was a major task. However, the project has been completed successfully and VisitScotland has gone from strength to strength in the past year or so.
Success has been achieved earlier than we expected. VisitScotland expected to be working with a balanced budget by the financial year 2007-08 but the business plan for this year, 2006-07, is based on a balanced budget a year earlier than planned. VisitScotland is confident that that is realistic. Efficiency savings of £1 million will also be realised this year and reflected back to front-line services.
However, this is not only about doing the same job as the old Scottish Tourist Board and area tourist boards did more efficiently; it is about doing even more. A year in, VisitScotland has demonstrated that it can do just that. Its marketing campaigns are world class and local areas are benefiting more than ever from national marketing campaigns. For example, VisitShetland and VisitOrkney teamed up to take advantage of this year's national spring marketing campaign to promote the northern isles as an ideal place to visit. A national mailer, designed to inspire potential visitors to visit the islands, was sent out to some 180,000 names from the VisitScotland database and the feedback has been excellent. Similarly, Perthshire has recently benefited from a direct mailing campaign to all parts of the United Kingdom, selling the area to prospective visitors, which it would not previously have had the opportunity to do.
The 14 VisitScotland network offices provide support for tourism businesses at all levels, while giving them the benefit of access to national services and a national strategy. Seventeen area tourism partnerships have been set up throughout Scotland, involving tourism businesses, VisitScotland, all 32 local authorities and other public sector interests. The excellent relationship between VisitScotland and local authorities is being strengthened by the creation of the VisitScotland chair's committee, with membership drawn from the local authority community. VisitScotland benefits by having Willie Dunn, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities spokesperson for economic development and planning, on the board. The annual national tourism convention also brings VisitScotland and COSLA together to discuss joint strategy.
The purpose of the bill is to formalise the arrangements that underpin the integrated tourism network so that we can maintain that success. To summarise, the bill repeals the statutory requirement that there be area tourist boards and dissolves the two network area tourist boards that were set up last April under secondary legislation, when the 14 former area tourist boards merged with VisitScotland. That means that VisitScotland can become fully integrated and can operate as a single legal entity. The bill also makes provision for the transfer of staff from the network tourist boards to VisitScotland. The bill makes provision to increase the size of the VisitScotland board from seven to 12 members to reflect VisitScotland's broader role. We plan to increase it only to nine members in the short term, but that provision will give us the flexibility to increase the board at a later stage, if that seems appropriate, without the need to revert to primary legislation.
Finally, the bill changes the organisation's legal name from the Scottish Tourist Board to VisitScotland. We think that the Scottish Tourist Board name belongs in the past. The VisitScotland name emphasises the way forward for tourism in Scotland and the brand is already established as an easily recognisable and trusted brand by visitors and businesses alike. The bill is not about changing the way in which the integrated tourism network works—it is already working well, and I am confident that it will continue to bring benefits to Scottish tourism—but it is about consolidating the integration process and putting the integrated network on a proper legal footing.
The committee is familiar with the issues, having dealt with them at the time of reorganisation. As the minister has said, the bill puts into law what has already been done in practice.
I suppose that I should start by saying that I find little to take issue with in the bill. In fact, I cannot think of anything that I take issue with, so I would really like to test the minister and her officials on the extent to which they believe that the bill will make it easier to grow tourism business by 50 per cent, which is the target; to take account of local sensibilities, which was a big issue at the time of the changeover; and to improve quality, because I read a survey in one of the papers, either today or yesterday, that commented on the continuing relatively poor quality of bed-and-breakfast accommodation.
Those are three big questions. The whole reason for the change in the structure and underpinning of how we market Scotland and Scotland's tourism product came from the problems of the past. A great deal of work was done, not least by the Enterprise and Culture Committee's predecessor committee, on identifying the ways in which that change could be taken forward. The bill is part of that process, and the early signs are pretty good.
However, it is important that what we put in place is quite flexible, so that it can respond to any specific crises or issues that may arise in future. I am conscious, as is everyone involved in tourism, that it is not always issues within one's control that throw tourism off course. In the past, we have had difficulties because of 9/11 and because of foot-and-mouth disease—issues that were entirely outwith our control but which had an impact. It is important that we allow flexibility so that such things can be reflected in changes in marketing or to how things are done.
Particularly latterly, VisitScotland has been sensitive to local sensibilities and we have certainly encouraged it to take account of such sensibilities. The fact that about 97 per cent of VisitScotland staff are based not in the headquarters but out in the individual tourist areas makes a big difference, because they are able to begin to build relationships with local businesses, local authorities, visitor attractions and anyone who has an interest in tourism. Working locally is probably the best way of ensuring that local sensibilities, concerns and issues are reflected.
Like VisitScotland and everyone else involved in tourism to whom I have spoken, I believe that there is a constant need to drive up quality. I know that quality is an issue close to the heart of the Scottish Tourism Forum and we can take reassurance from the fact that so many tourism industry providers are members of the quality assurance scheme. The most recent figures suggest that about 80 per cent of accommodation providers are part of the QA scheme, which compares favourably with the position in the rest of the UK. The equivalent figure for south of the border is something like 48 per cent.
It is important always to seek ways to improve quality. Part of the solution is to ensure that the training that is in place for tourism providers and operators is of the highest quality. We need to encourage people to enter tourism and to see it as an attractive career move. I could probably talk all day about the host of things that could be done. Along with VisitScotland, the changes to the tourism world in Scotland are very much focused on moving things forward and making them better in future.
On matters beyond our control, I found it slightly amusing that the dead swan in Cellardyke resulted in an increase in the number of visitors and inquiries. I found that very gratifying.
That could not have been predicted.
Good afternoon. In her opening remarks, the minister referred to the project—in other words, the integration of the local tourist boards into VisitScotland—being completed successfully. I am sure that, from VisitScotland's perspective, that was the case, but how have private sector tourism organisations reacted to the reorganisation? As I recall, when the committee considered the issue in advance of reorganisation, several concerns were expressed about how the new arrangements would work. Has the Executive carried out any research on what the industry feels about how the reorganisation has gone?
We have not done any research on that, but it is fair to say that the issue was one of my concerns when I inherited this job. I know that VisitScotland was keen to address that concern and, indeed, has been addressing it ever since. I am encouraged by the fact that the chair of VisitScotland regularly goes out around the country to talk to people who are involved in tourism, to get their perspective and to respond to questions that they might have. The chief executive does likewise—I understand that he will be in the Highlands and Islands next month to do that very thing. That is an important development.
Similarly, the local partnership agreements that are currently being drawn up are welcome. It is entirely possible for those agreements to influence what happens in a particular area. Obviously, that is what we want to happen.
It is fair to say that the anecdotal evidence that I receive when I talk to tourism businesses around the country is that people have an increasing confidence in VisitScotland's work. Much good work has gone into trying to bolster relationships to make them work. As I mentioned to Christine May, the fact that most VisitScotland staff are based in individual localities is a good thing. We hope to see that develop in future so that, as relationships blossom, we can take tourism forward. All the feedback that we receive suggests that things have got a great deal better. That is not to be complacent about things—there is always more that could be done—but the steps that VisitScotland is taking will help to address any outstanding problems that might exist.
I have not carried out any scientific survey, but the anecdotal feedback that I have received from people in the industry has been much more negative than the minister suggests. That might be due to a geographic issue, as the former Perthshire Tourist Board was well thought of by people in the industry. Among the people to whom I have spoken, the generality have felt that the steps that are being taken do not go in the right direction. However, I appreciate that the response might have been different elsewhere in the country.
The new set-up has been in place for a year and is starting to bed in. How is VisitScotland going to monitor the industry's response to the new arrangements?
Obviously, we do not want to talk about specifics, but in my opening remarks I talked about the work that is being done in Perthshire that could not have been done under the old regime. There are great opportunities but, sometimes, change is difficult for people, and moving to a new system is never all that easy. People have to get used to doing things a bit differently and, in some cases, working with different people. However, it is early days and the situation is likely to improve.
I would encourage local providers, individuals or groups of providers who have difficulties to contact VisitScotland and to speak to the chief executive. He will very much want to know about any problems that may arise to enable him to address them at the strategic level. He will want to talk them through with people and explain any difficulties that there may be.
VisitScotland talks regularly to all its partners and stakeholders around the country, and that will continue. I am not aware that it is—at the moment, at least—undertaking any systematic research into what people think about VisitScotland or what tourism service providers are doing, but that is something that we can encourage VisitScotland to do in the future. That will be especially important given the feedback that you suggest is coming from a particular area.
This is fairly straightforward, and we have been round the houses a few times. We are hoping to discuss the first draft of our stage 1 report on 30 May and approve it the following week, at the latest. That will be in plenty of time for stage 2, which is scheduled for 29 June.
I thank the minister and her officials. That was extremely helpful.
Meeting suspended.
On resuming—