Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 30697

Tourists opt for flights to Scotland

GROWING numbers of tourists and people on business are flying to Scotland.

Passenger numbers on Air UK flights from Stansted to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen are all up significantly for the first quarter of 1994.

Passengers on flights to Edinburgh and Glasgow increased by about a quarter, and passengers on flights to Aberdeen increased by 39%.

British Midland has also reported an increase in the number of its customers. Passengers from Heathrow to Glasgow are up by 6.5%.

British Airways, too, has seen an increase in numbers flying to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. Figures for the year ending1 May 1994 showed a 6% rise in the number of passengers to Edinburgh compared to the year before.

lNearly nine out of 10 people travelling by coach to Scotland between 1990 and 1992 were holidaymakers, according to statistics from the Scottish Tourist Board.

MHH fights for unpaid bills

A HOTEL chain has lost more than £1,000 in unpaid bills after accepting a holiday party booking from Czechoslovakia.

Methodist Holiday Hotels (MHH) says a booking was made in 1992 at one of its eight hotels by the local council tourism office on behalf of a Czechoslovakian travel agency.

MHH took the council to court but the judge ruled that the Czechoslovakian agency Freedom Travel, and not the council, was liable.

Nicholas Fowkes, a solicitor with legal advice company Care Assist, said this was a grey area. "Whether the council was an agent or a party to the contract is dependent on what was said, and whether any money changed hands," he said.