VisitScotland brings Indian travel agents to Oban

VisitScotland has recently organised a trip to Oban for some of India’s top travel agents who advise clients on travel to Scotland. The national agency now hopes that Oban will be in the forefront of the memories of these influential travel promoters.

VisitScotland sees the Indian travel trade as a priority emerging market. Its economy is booming. Personal wealth is growing. The country is looking at Scotland for the first tine as a potential destination.

The Indian travel agents brought to Oban by VisitScotland were on a trip linked to the promotion of Homecoming 2009. They were already in the country, at the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) annual overseas convention, taking place in London at the end of September.

The Scottish itinerary arranged for them took in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perthshire, Stirling and the Highlands. In Oban they went up to McCaig’s Tower, had a taste of Scotland at the Oban Distillery and the Cuan Mor restaurant and stayed overnight at the Oban Bay Hotel.

All of this is good enough news for Argyll. This is a powerful and mysterious place offering a spectrum of engagements from nature to history to culture to sports. The more influential people who see this for themselves the better it is for this place.

However, there are some matters of concern around VisitScotland’s operation which need to be confronted.

• The Press Release on the Indian travel agents’ trip referred often to ‘educating’ them. This smacks of an unhelpful condescension which a people as sophisticated as Indians will certainly recognise
• Oban is not the capital of Argyll. Maybe it should be, but it isn’t. Argyll has no capital. Lochgilphead is the county town as the HQ of Argyll & Bute Council is there.
• The itinerary they put together is cliched, shallow, unimaginative, underinformed and uninspiring. It does Oban few favours and it pays no attention to its accessible hinterland of mainland and islands.

What local consultation does VisitScotland undertake within the areas it plans to highlight before planning itineraries? Our research has not yet uncovered evidence of any.

A visit to Costa Rica could be an ‘education’ for VisitScotland in what good tourism management really is. That country too has a wealth of natural, cultural and historical resources and sports tourism. It is also a place of large empty landscapes and small villages. There it takes a five year degree course, including fluency in three languages, to be a tourist guide. Here we stick a mic in the hands of a coach driver or a wee girl and let them rip.

If the Scottish Government is serious about developing Scotland’s tourist industry at more than a superficial level, the whole operation needs a long term strategy and a root and branch revision.