For Argyll

The parliamentary inquiry into the development of Scotland’s tourist industry has recommended that the universally derided visitscotland website and the principles behind it should be radically overhauled. One of Wendy Alexander’s initiatives when she was Enterprise Minister, the website is operated by eTourism Ltd based in LIvingstone under major owner, Austria’s Tiscover, whose ‘bookings’ software is recognised to be archaic. The site is accepted as having obstructed the growth of a unified industry. The Inquiry report says ‘we believe that the current business model is patently flawed and obsolete’. There are a lot of operators in the tourist industry and many in Argyll, who, although happy at the Inquiry’s outcomes, can show that they have been saying this from the outset eight years ago.

The report essentially recommends that there should be a national ‘portal’ website offering a gateway to the full spectrum of information and advice on Scotland. This would carry ‘quality assured’ business listings with the businesses concerned given softare and training to allow them to create their own websites with online booking facilities.

The leader of a long campaign to bring the visitscotland website into public ownership, Alan Keith from Dumfries and Galloway, while welcoming the substance of the Inquiry report says that he will wait to see what action will be taken to deal with the problem.