Pictures of Scotland

[Alastair]

It would be great to share pictures of Scotland with each other. I have a lot that I took myself which you can see at http://www.electricscotland.com/trav...ures_tours.htm

Alastair

[jacky]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

It would be great to share pictures of Scotland with each other. I have a lot that I took myself which you can see at http://www.electricscotland.com/trav...ures_tours.htm

Alastair

Your shared images are great and present a true picture so Scotland. Your shared link is much informative to know much more about the Scotland. These photographs show that how much fun do you have during your tours to Scotland. Am I right?

[Alastair]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

The pictures were mainly taken as a reminder of what Scotland looks like as at the time I was looking to move to either the USA or Canada so likely wouldn't be coming back to Scotland. It was also done to show how hotels could do a much better job of promoting themselves as most of my Highland trips were based around using one hotel as a base and taking day trips around the country from there. I can't really understand why hotels don't do this type of promotion to attract more people to their hotel and get them to stay longer.

Alastair

[jacky]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

The pictures were mainly taken as a reminder of what Scotland looks like as at the time I was looking to move to either the USA or Canada so likely wouldn't be coming back to Scotland. It was also done to show how hotels could do a much better job of promoting themselves as most of my Highland trips were based around using one hotel as a base and taking day trips around the country from there. I can't really understand why hotels don't do this type of promotion to attract more people to their hotel and get them to stay longer.

Alastair

You are right Alastair hotels can advertise on different sites but some of the famous hotels are doing this but these hotels are much expensive. I think most of the owners of the hotels avoid this due to high expenses of the advertisement and just promote them locally and don't take interest to promote in the world wide. I think they should do so in this way they can shine their business. What do you think Am I right?

[Alastair]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

Actually I was more thinking they should do more with their own web sites to show what visitors could get up to and see while staying with them.

I have found all tourism organisations to be pretty pathetic really. Like i note you love US tours but you might not be aware that no US state was willing to provide an overview of their state or any pictures that I could use on my site. That is truly pathetic in my view.

Alastair

[Glesgalass]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

The pictures were mainly taken as a reminder of what Scotland looks like as at the time I was looking to move to either the USA or Canada so likely wouldn't be coming back to Scotland. It was also done to show how hotels could do a much better job of promoting themselves as most of my Highland trips were based around using one hotel as a base and taking day trips around the country from there. I can't really understand why hotels don't do this type of promotion to attract more people to their hotel and get them to stay longer.

Alastair

You are right Alastair. Where I live is on the Central Coast of NSW, only 1 hour drive north of Sydney. There are a number of motels/hotels here which advertise package tours of up to 7 days inclusive of all meals, local tours and sightseeing. They are very reasonably priced. One hotel I know of ONLY does this type of thing and they never have room for any casual tourists who may drop in hoping to get a room. Obviously it is profitable otherwise they wouldn't do it. I think most of the people on these tours are domestic tourists. We have these types of tours all over NSW, Victoria and Queensland which are advertised in a free newspaper call "The Seniors" which comes out once per month. I believe they are on line too.

Elda

http://www.thesenior.com.au/

Here is one resort which is 10 mins from me

http://www.ettalongbeachtouristresort.com.au/deals

[sandyc]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

In our Saturdy paper and also one other day of the week, there are lots of ads from Hotels and travel companies offering 'deals' on trips.
We were on the West Coast a couple of weeks ago (last weekend in Sept) and I can assure you everywhere was busy. So someone somewhere is doing something right.

Sandy

[Alastair]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

From what I've seen domestic tourism is what is driving things. That is why Canada can report an increase in tourism. However the economy also plays a part as well as exchange rates and border controls. This is the same in every country. Like you need to look at actual revenue generated, room occupancy rates, etc. Also foreign arrivals can lead to export gains.

Tourism is a large part of all countries GDP and is a significant employer. Canada was the 2nd most visited country but now ranks 18th. Australia is spending I believe some 18% of its tourism marketing budget in China. Also day trips are taking up more of the holidays so tourism spend can be down by that alone if you rely on domestic tourism. Canada, Australia and the USA are huge countries and so air travel is important. The UK I know have problems down the road as they are running out of arrival slots. Heathrow in particular is running out of room so they are going to have to make more use of regional hubs like Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, etc.

Scottish tourism relies on England for some 83% of its visitors but 68% of its revenue. They were down 7% to June this year. So appearances can be deceiving on the ground. Like we know that North Americans spend at least 4 times what domestic tourists spend.

If you remember 2004 was my first trip to Canada. I ended up writing about Canada and also ended up coming here to live. I suspect all my activity helped generate tourism income for Canada although how much there is no way to tell. Prior to 2004 Canada wasn't even on my radar. In fact I used to complain in Scotland that we never heard of Canada in the news. Mostly there were regular reports about happenings in the USA and to a lesser part Australia but it was like Canada didn't exist.

There is actually a huge story to be told about Canada yet information is hard to find. Like Aquaculture is huge in Canada and is growing exports and jobs. Canada is the world's leading exporter for pulses and exports have reached almost 3 billion. Agriculture in general is also huge and has a huge export market. That is why under the Industry and Transport section of Electric Canadian I've tried to profile some of this information but a lot of that information is not that easy to find in Canada so some of that is coming from US generated reports such as the recent report I put up about Canada's Energy industry.

The Tourism industry in Canada is worth some 80 billion. However Canada has a travel deficit of some $16 billion and growing. Can you imagine how many jobs could be created if we could half that deficit?

Alastair

[sandyc]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

I don't have any figures at hand but am sure that the official statistics seem to suggest the tourism in all its forms grew in Scotland in the last year. And there appear to be some quite big increases in foreign tourists.
But I do agree that more can be done, can no longer talk about the state of Canadian tourism.
From a personal viewpoint Canada was always on my radar, so to speak. Along with Australia, South Africa and even India. All because of personal connections. That was bolstered by the Education I received at school in the 50's and early 60's about the Empire / Commonwealth.
When I first went to Canada in 1966 I was surprised to find that I knew a lot more than may locals!!!~~~
Sandy

[Alastair]

Re: Pictures of Scotland

In Canada we have a reported $16 billion travel deficit (fall 2014) which is why we need to do something about this. The latest report on Scottish tourism I could find is contained in a pdf document at http://www.electricscotland.com/trav...ourism2012.pdf

Alastair