VISITSCOTLAND is not doing enough to boost tourism and should be replaced with a new organisation, according to an influential report.
Scotland's tourism body is too centralised, focuses too much on successful areas rather than those that need support, and does not have enough funding, in the view of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The report's authors said VisitScotland should b
e replaced by a new organisation called Tourism Scotland that has a radically new structure, with combined responsibility for development, investment, marketing and training.
VisitScotland was restructured just three years ago, when area tourist boards were scrapped, but these should be brought back in the form of Regional Tourism Boards, according to the report.
The new body should have funding in line with the equivalent body in Ireland, which gets £50 million, compared with £28 million currently granted to VisitScotland.
A new catchphrase should be adopted to help promote Scotland to tourists, similar to New Zealand's "100 per cent Pure" and Ireland's "Your Very Own Ireland", the report suggested. And Scotland should be promoted as the activity centre of Europe, with regional tourism boards setting up centres where visitors can try activities like white-water rafting and rock-climbing.
The recommendations came in the most comprehensive study ever carried out into the wide-ranging threats to Scotland's rural communities, and were part of a raft of other suggestions, from increasing funding to farmers to canceling plans to close rural post offices.
The report criticised VisitScotland for its "poor performance, lack of leadership and direction of the industry".
Professor Gavin McCrone, chairman of the Royal Society committee behind the inquiry, was sceptical of the Scottish Government's targets for VisitScotland to boost tourism revenue by 50 per cent by 2015.
"We don't think there's the slightest chance it's going to achieve that as things stand at the moment and some fairly substantial changes need to be made," said Prof McCrone.
He added: "Tourism is the most important industry in the hills and islands but it seems to be hardly growing in these areas of Scotland."
A spokesman for VisitScotland said the organisation was committed to promoting rural areas through a "vast array of national and international campaigns".
He added: "Our recent restructure enables us to focus even more closely on our customers, from visitors to tourism businesses."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "VisitScotland promotes Scotland to overseas and UK-based visitors and has a fantastic track record in this, frequently winning awards in its field.
"VisitScotland is a responsive, forward-looking agency which will help deliver these ambitions, and there are no plans to change its remit."
Sixty steps to safeguard future of rural communitiesSCRAPPING the closure of rural post offices and encouraging the use of community renewable energy schemes are among 60 recommendations in the Royal Society of Edinburgh report.
The report also says community abattoirs should be brought back to help promote local food.
Ferry services must be reviewed, broadband speed needs to be increased and the charging scheme for connecting renewable energy projects to the national grid needs improving.
The report also recommends an incentive system is set up to help meet targets of 25 per cent of Scotland being covered by forest by 2050.
It says this could be in the form of a carbon trading scheme, which provides incentives for helping to cut carbon loss.
Much of the report, written over the past 18 months, focuses on the need to increase funding to farmers.
It describes a "serious income crisis" and says the survival of rural farms depends on the "continued provision of public support".
