SCOTLAND’S tourism boss has ruled out capping tourist numbers at popular beauty spots in the wake of new research that claims tourism is worth more than £11 billion to the Scottish economy.
When indirect spending is added to the value of direct spending, tourism represents 4.5 per cent of the economy, according to the research by VisitScotland.
It also accounts for over 200,000 jobs with nearly half of these in the Highlands, Edinburgh, Fife, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
Responding to recent reports of major problems caused by the sheer volume of numbers in places such as Skye, VisitScotland boss Malcolm Roughead dismissed the idea of trying to reduce the total.
Instead, he said, better planning is needed to cope with visitor numbers, adding that attempts could be made to spread tourist visits throughout the year.
His comments follow a series of reports that Skye’s infrastructure is on the verge of collapse because of the number of tourists.
Once a place of peaceful beauty, the island’s popularity has soared in recent years as a result of music videos, films and TV productions such as Outlander and MacBeth which have used Skye as a backdrop. The permanent population of 10,000 now rockets to around 66,000 at the peak of the summer causing locals a host of problems.
Businessman Roger Booth, who has been forced to clear up human waste and other detritus at one of the island’s beauty spots, has called for a tourist toll to be charged at the Skye Bridge to help pay for better waste facilities and more public toilets.
Other islanders have said shuttle buses should be used to take tourists to the most popular destinations such as the Fairy Pools in Glen Brittle. Last week it was reported that a tour bus had disrupted a family funeral at a cemetery near the Fairy Glen in Uig and fears have been voiced that traffic jams could delay emergency services and the mountain rescue team.
Concerns have also been raised over the new North Coast 500 road trip in the Highlands which some local people complain is encouraging more vehicles on the roads without any investment being made in infrastructure.
However Roughead said it was a major marketing success and would be followed by efforts to encourage investment and improve infrastructure.
He added that the Edinburgh Festival experience also had to be “protected” so that the events could be developed. “We need to make sure the assets here are preserved for future generations of visitors,”
he said. “You have to manage the infrastructure, and make sure the experience which people talk about – and they do so immediately through social media – is one which will bring people in.
“It’s about harnessing the goodwill of those who come to Scotland to act as ambassadors.”
Despite the amount of money the tourist industry generates, VisitScotland has reported that productivity is the worst of the six sectors targeted for growth by the Scottish Government’s economic strategy.
Roughead said many tourism businesses were missing out on opportunities by failing capitalise on online transactions. While nearly two-thirds of global tourism transactions are carried out online, half of the businesses on VisitScotland’s website do not cater for them. The most recent figures show that one in 12 Scottish firms are involved in tourism.
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