The Bigger Picture

Central government involvement in tourism in each country is quite varied. But in all cases the Government has played a crucial role at some time, even if it is not doing so now.

The main lessons are:

The growth of Scottish tourism was assisted greatly by government actions in the past, through the establishment of VisitScotland; financial support for significant product development and improvement; commitment to marketing activity; and the funding of other bodies that have contributed to the growth of tourism, especially SDA/SE and HIDB/HIE. The biggest impact of this government commitment is illustrated by the 130% growth in trips from overseas in the 1970s (almost double the phenomenal growth achieved by Ireland in the 1990s), followed by a 42% growth in the 1980s.

The Scottish Executive is strongly committed to the tourism industry today and has been heavily involved in the national strategic planning process. However, there must be lessons to be learned from the approach of the Irish Government, over the past 20 or so years, where there appears to be a much closer relationship between strategic priorities and the availability of funding. It is rare in Scotland to see strategic documents for tourism which actually show the costs of implementation and the programmed sources of funding.

The case of British Columbia is also worth further consideration as it has a fairly mature tourism product like Scotland and the Provincial Government has virtually withdrawn from tourism and left it to bodies dominated by the private sector. This may be a lesson for the longer term. It started in Canada as a whole when the private sector lobby was strong enough to encourage Central Government to hand over its tourism responsibilities. Scotland may be some way from this but it is an option for future consideration.