Scotland needs infrastructure to achieve tourism growth plan

27 June 2006
Scotland needs infrastructure to achieve tourism growth plan

Scotland needs to ensure it has the infrastructure and people to achieve its planned 50% growth in tourism over 10 years, the British Hospitality Association (BHA) has warned.

The association plans to devote its Scotland United conference in November to these issues by limiting the normally-open event to invited industry leaders and policy-makers.

Martin Couchman, deputy chief executive of the BHA, said it was currently unclear whether Scotland had enough hotels to cope with more tourists.

"Scottish hotels get quite full in the summer," he pointed out. "If all the extra visitors come in the summer, there may be a capacity problem."

Couchman believes planning is also an urgent issue. The Planning Bill is currently passing through the Scottish Parliament and Green MSPs are opposing proposals for a fast-track system, which would allow hotel stock shortfalls to be quickly plugged.

Scotland's transport infrastructure's ability to cope with increased volumes and its education system's attempt to produce enough hospitality workers with the right skills to meet demand, will also be under the spotlight at the BHA conference.

VisitScotland denies claims it is planning a green tax >>

Scotland looks into imposing its own bed tax >>

Scottish Executive 10-year tourism strategy >>

By Angela Frewin

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week -

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking