The Best of the New Scottish Tourism

by Stuart Crawford

The Scottish tourist industry has taken a bit of a battering in the media recently. Despite the benefits of wonderful scenery, first class home produce, and a unique historical and cultural setting, the numbers of overseas tourists visiting Scotland in 2000 slumped by 11% with a corresponding loss in revenue. This presents a worrying prospect to one of Scotland's biggest industries and to its 180,00 employees. Worst of all, the industry has even been dubbed "a world class failure" by one of the Scottish Parliament's Ministers.

So, is all lost with Scottish tourism? Well, as ever there's no smoke without fire, but it would be unfair to tar the whole industry with the same brush. You don't have to search too far to find the gems of Scottish tourism, many internationally famous but others less well known. They range across the spectrum from five-star venues for corporate entertainment to tiny B&Bs tucked away in the heart of the Scottish countryside. Here are some of the best to restore faith in Scotland's attractions for the tourist.

Visitor Attractions

The Scottish Seabird Centre is one of Scotland's newest visitor attractions. It focuses primarily on the gannet and puffin colonies on the Bass Rock and Fidra off the East Lothian coast and is, in effect, the national centre for the study of seabirds in Scotland.

Live links with controllable cameras allow visitors to watch seabirds as they nest, feed, and breed. There are many other interactive aspects to the Centre as well, but the live link cameras are the icing on the cake. Future developments include the possibilities of live links via the RSPB to bird colonies on Jura and elsewhere, and talks are underway with the Falkland Islands with a view to obtaining live-link coverage of the albatross population there. The Centre has been hugely successful in its first year, with its aim of 60,000 admissions for the year well on target. It has already established itself as one of the "must dos" for visitors to Scotland

Hotels

Scotland's hotels come in all shapes and sizes, from the internationally famous Gleneagles and Turnberry Hotels to numerous family run businesses at Scotland's holiday resorts. Amongst all these, however, a new breed is making its mark. Two fine examples can be found in the Bonham and the Pool House Hotels, under different ownership and aiming at different clientele, but equally successful in their respective niches.

Currently Edinburgh's most fashionable town house hotel, The Bonham Hotel in the West End of the City opened in May 1998. The Bonham is one of a triumvirate of Edinburgh hotels owned and operated by the Town House Company, and its stable mates are the equally well-known 4-star Channings and the 5-star Howard Hotels. All are placed at the luxury end of the boutique town house hotel market.

Of the three The Bonham, which was named the AA's Hotel of the Year in Scotland for 1999-2000, is conspicuously the most contemporary, with 48 individually decorated rooms displaying paintings by some of the best of Scottish modern artists. It's fair to say that The Bonham took Edinburgh by storm when it first opened, and its love affair with the media shows no signs of diminishing. Clientele is evenly split between business and tourism, and there is an extremely high repeat customer rate at between 35-40%. Most guests are from Europe or America.

At the other end of the country, the Pool House Hotel in Wester Ross has a stunning location on the shore of Loch Ewe, with the River Ewe running alongside and the world famous Inverewe Gardens across the bay.

Last year the owners created two suites from some of the original bedrooms, spending £70,000 on each. One is modelled on the Titanic, another sports a fabulous Victorian bath bought at vast expense from an Edinburgh salvage company. It quickly became apparent that these new, luxurious, and individualistic suites were by far and away the most popular of all the rooms. This year it was decided to similarly convert the rest of the rooms to suites, thereby completing the transformation from 16-bedroom hotel to a 5-suite and one luxury single bedroom establishment.

The rooms have a unique atmosphere and are full of antiques rather than standard hotel utilitarian fittings. Guests are likely to find silver-backed brushes on their dressing tables and "weird" things in the bath. Overall, though, it's a relaxed and informal Hotel, and most guests are as happy to wander into the kitchens as they are to be in the drawing room. Future plans are for a new extension on the Hotel featuring a conservatory, boardrooms, and ground level accommodation for the disabled.

Restaurants

Scottish cuisine used to conjure up images of high-calorie, stodgy fare and an over-reliance on the frying pan—this is the country which gave us the deep-fried Mars Bar, after all. But scratch the surface and you'll find standards to compare with the best in the world.

Twenty-one years ago, The Witchery By The Castle restaurant in Edinburgh started with a chef and three helpers. Today the restaurant employs 96 full-time staff and it is twice its original size. Buoyed up by such success, its owner James Thomson opened The Tower in the Royal Museum of Scotland two years ago, adding another 90 dining places (plus 70 on the terrace) to The Witchery's existing 120. Thomson's annual turnover 21 years ago he now achieves in three days.

He puts down the success of his enterprises to providing "good Scottish cuisine" using natural, local ingredients simply cooked. On top of this bedrock, he strives to constantly re-invent and change processes in his restaurants, and has "built the business to suit its customers". There's no question of either restaurant closing at 2 o'clock after lunch—customers can linger as long as they like. A string of awards—including the recent AA Wine Award for Scotland—prove the point.

Thomson is now investing £40,000 in his own call centre to take bookings for both restaurants, and to establish a client database which will give a firm picture of customer likes, dislikes, favourite tables and so on. The system is unique outside London and, once more, will lead the way for Scotland's blossoming restaurant sector.

Self Catering

In 1986 John and Elaine Parker, farmers of 300 acres near St Andrews in Fife, decided to diversify and stake a claim in the tourist trade in Fife. The original idea was based on a "wish list" of things they liked to look for when they went on holiday themselves. The result is a self-catering holiday complex with ten houses plus assorted leisure facilities based at Morton of Pitmilly. The houses range from cottages which sleep between two and four right up to the former granary which takes up to ten. All are fully equipped with all facilities one would expect. Leisure facilities include heated swimming pool, sauna, tennis court and children's play area.

Their initiative has proved to be highly successful. The complex is used for a variety of purposes by their guests—reunions, business workshops, golfing trips, family gatherings and quiet weekends. The Parkers believe the success of their venture is firmly based on providing value for money and a commitment to quality. Exceeding customer expectations comes high up on the list, and they invest heavily every year on upgrading the facilities. With US interest in St Andrews showing no sign of abating, Morton of Pitmilly seems set to be even more in demand in the future.

Further south-west, at Catherine Field Farm, near Dumfries, is a working farm owned by Jim and Lorna Henderson. Ten years ago they diversified their business by converting one of the farm cottages into a self-catering bungalow. So successful was their venture into tourism that they converted a second cottage. Each cottage sleeps six and they are fully equipped internally with enclosed gardens, and have been awarded 3-star and 4-star status respectively.

The cottages—Catherine Field Cottage and Catkin Cottage—enjoy an unusually high occupancy every year, with an average of 33 weeks booked per season compared to the average 23-24 weeks in the trade. Guests come from all over Britain, and a large proportion are repeat bookings. They also get a quite a number of visitors from France, perhaps partly due to Lorna Henderson's fluency in the language.

The Hendersons are quite clear on the reasons for their success. Cleanliness and tidiness come top of the list, although it's stressed that accommodation shouldn't be too "clinical". The cottages are well-equipped and guests arrive to a starter pack of essentials, plus the added touch of a welcoming tray with a bottle of wine and home-made shortbread. It's the little touches, says Lorna, which make guests feel especially at home.

Bed & Breakfast

Not far away is one of Scotland's B&B success stories. Wallamhill House is a large and modern bungalow set in 22 acres of ground, one and a half acres of which is garden. There are three rooms for a maximum of six guests.

Ever since the owners, the Hoods, started B&B the number of guests has increased every year, often against the national trend. Gordon Hood puts this down to two main things; first, they are situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty on a well-worn tourist route into Scotland. Wallamhill is a mere two hours from Newcastle and three hours from Hull, both important entry points for European tourists to Scotland. The area is popular with fishermen and is an oasis of calm and tranquillity for those seeking to escape city life. In addition, all their rooms are very large with ensuite facilities, which is in line with the increasingly discerning demands of today's tourists.

Second, the website they established in February this year— www.wallamhill.co.uk —has proved outstandingly successful. Bookings have been made from as far afield as New Zealand, Canada, the USA, and many European countries, and between 10-12% of those who visit the website actually book on-line. With about 10% of their total number of guests now booking on-line the Hoods are clear that e-business has considerably augmented their normal trade. They are now in the process of adding a small leisure suite with gymnasium and sauna to Wallamhill, to be ready for guests next summer.

With success stories such as these—and there are many more—it's clearly not yet time to give up hope on Scotland as a holiday destination. Despite the bad press, the very best which the Scottish tourist industry has to offer ranks with any other country in the world. You have to know where to look, though, and it's obvious that the internet is fast becoming the research medium of choice for increasing numbers of the world's travellers. Much of the industry is playing catch-up and is getting on-line to compete internationally.

In the meantime, the discerning visitor can take note of the varied opportunities described here and, perhaps, visit some of them before the rest of the world catches on.

© S W Crawford 2001

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