No world-class failure – just underfunded

HAVING just spent a week in Grand Canaria, I have come back to two very different scenarios.

First, our businesses are all trading well, with significant growth year-on-year, in particular in the two smaller hotels. The main business continues to trade strongly, despite what we read in the papers, which brings me to my second point.

I arrived back to hear politicians condemning the Scottish tourist industry as being a world-class failure, to which I take exception.

This week, as Best Westerners, we are due to meet the Scottish Tourist Board to hear their point of view. I am convinced this will continue to be positive regarding their contribution to our industry - a view with which I wholly concur.

Our marketing performance is compared with that of Ireland - how can there be any comparison when, according to The Scotsman of 11 July, Ireland spent £5.4m on marketing to Germany, France and the UK, and Scotland has spent £800,000?

Meanwhile, Grand Canaria gave us the usual sun, sea and sand (imported from the Bahamas). The size of the apartment that we stayed in was incredible.

On the service front, it quickly became obvious to me that they were facing similar problems with staff and their general attitude. I have to say that on this occasion I found the Canarians to be slow and surly.

On food, maybe we chose the wrong places. It was good as long as you like pizza or burgers - great for children.

The highlight of the week was sailing on a yacht for an afternoon, which turned out to be a rather shortened affair, with 80% of the crew feeling ill only 500 yards from the shore, forcing a return to port.

On the IT front, things are moving forward. I am armed with a Psion Revo, which is synchronised with my office PC, which is synchronised with my laptop. E-mail, Internet, digital photographs, digital videos, and mobile phone linked with my PC means the ability to receive e-mail anywhere - it's all great news for e-commerce.

However, at the end of the day, the business I am in is hotelkeeping - and that involves being there and not somewhere else in the world, speaking to both staff and customers. n

STEPHEN LECKIE is managing director of the Crieff Hydro leisure hotel in Crieff, Perthshire

Next diary from Stephen Leckie:31 August