Scotland tourism at risk as Edinburgh withdraws funding

VisitScotland, the country’s official tourism authority, is facing a financial crisis after Edinburgh’s plans to announce its withdrawal of funding and to promote the city on its own.

The Edinburgh City Council is expected to announce this week that it will withdraw £500,000 in annual funding from VisitScotland, with insiders claiming that it is felt the national tourism body offers little value for money. It is said that the council believes it can attract more visitors by spending the same amount of money directly.

According to Scotland on Sunday, Glasgow and Shetland are also expected to withdraw their funding from VisitScotland, amount to hundreds of thousands of pounds – and other councils will likely do the same.

Five years ago, area tourist boards were abolished and VisitScotland was created. Many regional tourism leaders feel that the national body has “lost touch” with area needs and has concentrated far too much on establishing a national brand based on golf and whisky.

A source in the industry said: “The whole system put in place by the old Labour Liberal Executive is now unravelling. There are some areas that are just not happy with what they get from VisitScotland in return for their money. They include Edinburgh and Glasgow, which between them account for more than 80% of people who arrive in Scotland.”

Thanks to news.scotsman.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.visitscotland.com