Mike Wade, The Scotsman, 12 July 2000

Leaving aside any scepticism of something calling itself an industry but which does not feature a flying shuttle, a lathe or even a clean room, you should be aware by now that "the tourism industry" in Scotland is in crisis.

Affluent Germans, free-spending Americans and the rest of them are staying away from this country in their hundreds of thousands. It’s not just the high pound, those mind-boggling petrol prices or thedecline of what heritage consultants have so cleverly identified as "the Braveheart factor" which cause consternation. There is the rise and rise of Ireland as a visitor destination to contend with, the bold cosmopolitanism of London and the self-confident selling of many an English shire.

Mark you, the experts tell us concerned Scots should not necessarily lose hope. After all, "we are lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world", writes Tom Buncle, chief executive of the Scottish Tourist Board, in the Sunday papers. "Most destinations would give their right arm for Scotland’s unique blend of dynamic cities, stunning scenery, dramatic heritage,vibrant contemporary culture and hospitable people."

Destinations blessed with a right arm may be few (Arma-dale, Armley, Armenia and Armageddon appear left-armed from here), but sadly for this country Buncle’s sweepingly vague description could be applied to virtually anywhere in the world.

The worry for those with an interest in the Scottish enterprise is that our supposed qualities - the dynamism and vibrancy and what have you - when applied, say, to Eastern Europe, are combined there with another magical ingredient: warm summers. That leaves us in our rightful place,marooned somewhere to the north and west on Europe’s tourism map.

In response to sharpening competition, a mantra of quality is chanted by the enterprise minister, Henry McLeish, urging that most nebulous of concepts on to tourism businesses, the guest-houses and restaurants, the visitor attractions and the shops.

In Edinburgh and Glasgow, the efforts of these providers is often marked by an apparent self-confidence, and the ability of absorb a wide range of guests in a still-thriving hinterland. But elsewhere in central Scotland and for those destinations further afield there’s an inability to match the allure of overseas alternatives.

True, part of Scotland’s appeal to a particular kind of visitor is its wilderness, but the obvious inability of tourist towns and villages to match the allure of their equivalents in Spain, France, Greece or Italy, or even England is hardly the foundation for thriving local econ-omies.

Little wonder hoteliers from Ayr to Oban and beyond are distressed. The latest figures from the STB portray an 11 per cent fall in foreign visitors in 1999, an estimated loss in revenue of £123 million to the economy. Though the overall decline last year was just 1 per cent (numbers of UK holiday makersremained relatively high), the predictions for this year are more pessimistic still.

Tourism’s statisticians will tell you it is a crisis which concerns us all, because their business provides jobs for 180,000 people and is worth more than £2.5 billion to Scotland. The trade, they say, pays the wages of more people than the oil, gas and whisky industries combined.

But it’s precisely on this subject of remuneration where the analysis unravels. Comparisons with oil and gas in this respect are absurd, since full-time work in virtually any sector connected to the offshore industries will yield wages many times higher than most of those in tourism.

And while a drive along the motorways of the Central belt will be enlivened by those alluring mud-brown tourist signposts to the Time Capsule, Strathclyde Park and NewLanark, you can be assured the townspeople of Motherwell and Hamilton would take a newmicro-chip factory or even an old steelworks before another heritage attraction or a leisure pool. After all, the only serious money in the tourist industry is made by the consultants who squander the latest lottery grant and advertising agencies who tack together the latest campaigns.

For the bulk of employees, the catering assistants and the couriers, many of whom work part-time, the rewards are pitiful.

At issue in this crisis is the kind of Scotland which tourism is coming to represent. Egged on by spurious market research, the marketeers’ efforts focus on manufacturing a version of Scotland which might belabelled "retro", but which is free of any laddish irony.

This orthodoxy has consistently suggested a country comprised of mountains and glens, castles, golf, tartan and the odd human caricature. Barring the odd arts festival, there’s nobody and nothing from the here and now. The tourist industry has become the new manufacturing, shorn of decent wages, but making a version of the country fit primarily for prosperous middle-aged American men with wide girths and a weakness for loud checks.

Every defeat is an opportunity, a wise marketing man once said. In its crisis, Scotland’s over-reliance on tourism has been exposed. We’re not living in a theme park. A healthy economy needs more than heritage and hotels; the challenge is to find the alternatives.