Surprise choice for Scots tourist board

Visitscotland, the renamed Scottish Tourist Board, has appointed a new chief executive. The surprise choice is Rod Lynch, until recently chief executive of Greek airline Olympic Airways. He joins the tourist board five months after the resignation of its former chief executive, Tom Buncle, who had come under fire from some in the industry who said he had failed to provide strong leadership at a time when Scottish tourism was suffering a drop in business. The decision to change the tourist board's name to visitscotland has also been heavily criticised. Lynch's previous experience includes spells as sales and marketing director of Forte Hotels, managing director of BBC Resources, managing director of Air Europe, and in various management positions at British Airways. Visitscotland's chairman, Peter Lederer, said Lynch would develop a "fresh approach" to promoting Scotland and working in partnership with the tourism industry. Lynch said: "The foot-and-mouth emergency has served to underline just how important the tourism sector is to Scotland and my first priority has to be to ensure that the recovery plans we are implementing with the industry are effective. "Beyond that, there is a tremendous opportunity to develop Scottish tourism as a world-class brand." Lynch, 51, lives in Chiswick, west London, and is a committee member of the London Scottish Rugby Club. He went to university in Dundee. Web links:Visitscotland](http://www.visitscotland.com/) [Scotexchange