'Put tourism on a par with medicine, law and banking'

ATTEMPTS to boost the value of tourism to Scotland are being held back by a sluggish planning system, a lack of properly trained staff and a failure to attract enough visitors outside peak periods, it was claimed yesterday.

And Debbie Taylor, the new head of trade group the British Hospitality Association in Scotland, is warning action is urgently needed to change perceptions about working in tourism and hospitality, cut red tape for businesses, and boost marketing at home and abroad.

Speaking ahead of Scottish Tourism Week, which begins tomorrow, Ms Taylor called for a nationwide drive to ensure the sector had the same status as the financial services, law and medicine, and said that tourism and hospitality should be on the school curriculum.

Tourism is currently worth about £4.2 billion to the Scottish economy, according to the most recent figures, and the industry has a target of boosting revenue in the industry by 50 per cent by 2015.

But Ms Taylor – who currently runs the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews – said the country needed a more "cohesive" approach if the industry's potential is to be properly realised over the next five to ten years.

She said: "If we are to have 50 per cent growth in the next seven years then there's no doubt we will need to increase hotel capacity, particularly in Edinburgh and Glasgow, but also in rural areas, and especially at the higher end of the market.

"One of the main barriers to this is the slowness of the planning system. It takes far too long to get developments moving.

Ms Taylor said there was "huge room for improvement" when it came to the levels of service on offer in hotels and restaurants, but admitted the problem would be tough to crack until there was a sea-change in attitudes among school-leavers.

"One in five of the workforce in Scotland are in tourism or hospitality jobs, but it's still not seen as a first career choice, despite its economic importance. A job in tourism should have the same status as working in law or the financial sector. It should be on the school curriculum."

And she said: "We do have a lot more work to do to ensure that Scotland is a real all-year-round destination. We have to make more of the many outdoor pursuits that we're able to offer outwith the peak periods, and not get hung up about the weather. No-one really goes on holiday to Scotland for the weather."

Chris Dougray, a director of the planning agency DTZ, said: "It's not so much the efficiency of the planning system that is a problem for hotel developers at the moment, it is the costs involved, particularly because of inflation in the construction industry.

"There's no doubt though that Glasgow in particular does desperately need more top-quality hotels."

DRIVE TO RAISE AWARENESS
SCOTTISH Tourism Week, which starts tomorrow, is an annual initiative organised by a leading industry lobby group.

The Scottish Tourism Forum instigated the campaign in 2005 to raise awareness of the importance of the industry to the country's economy.

The programme of events is spread across Scotland, and includes showcases for forest parks, talks from award-winning B&B operators, and a seminar on sustainable tourism.

The centrepiece event is Wednesday's "Scotland United" conference at Murrayfield stadium, addressed by Jim Mather, the tourism minister.