The Courier, 13 September 2000

Scottish Minister Henry McLeish has called on those involved in the country’s tourism industry to step up their efforts to improve the product.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting of the St Andrews Business Club in the Old Course Hotel yesterday Mr McLeish, MSP and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, said that golf tourism is currently worth £100 million a year.

However, he said that the Scottish Executive - it is currently putting together a bid to bring the Ryder Cup to Scotland - had now set a target in growth of golf tourism of 4.3% per annum.

Mr McLeish said, “Tourism is currently under-performing in Scotland. Under the theme of quality, quality, quality we need to drive forward this agenda and work hard to improve the product we have to offer. Sophisticated niche marketing is one tool we can use to do this.

“With golf and some of the most beautiful scenery in Scotland and excellent facilities, Fife has much to offer,” he said.

Earlier in his speech he highlighted the importance of a skilled workforce in the global knowledge economy, which he maintained is now more important than ever before with “continuous learning” as the key.

He explained, “To be able to take advantage of future opportunities, a country needs not only to be able to change skills, but also to upgrade them.”

Mr McLeish said that Scotland and Fife was now attracting international companies, with Dundee a biomedical leader and Edinburgh in the top ten for computer science.

The Minister also spoke of the Scottish Executive’s economic framework which recognised the key role of the private sector in promoting economic change.

He added, “At the same time it stresses the importance of the public sector in dealing with marketing and institutional failures, as well as in the promotion of fairness and equity.”

Mr McLeish said a year down the road in devolution had seen the establishment of a “good foundation” from which to move forward in the global economy.

He concluded, “The Scottish economy has changed dramatically over the past 30 years and manufacturing now employs barely 15 out of 20. But, there remains opportunity to scale up the service sector through increased investment in knowledge and technology.”