The Bigger Picture

The industry in each country benefits from assistance and services from public bodies (and some private and academic bodies). This includes provision of research and monitoring information (e.g. visitor satisfaction surveys), business development guidance and marketing advice. In some countries, especially Germany, South Africa and British Columbia there is also financial assistance for the development of small/medium size businesses in tourism. These are worth considering further to compare their activities with the services and assistance currently available from the LECs in Scotland.

Training for tourism is at a state of transition in Scotland. It may, therefore, be an appropriate time to consider the quite substantial effort in Germany and the activities of CERT in Ireland.

Information for Visitors

Scotland seems to serve its tourists well as far as information is concerned. Some lessons may be learned from:

New Zealand''s radio station and other information distribution

The employment of private sector operators to run information services in South Africa

The use of volunteers in information centres in New Zealand and British Columbia.