AIR-SCOTLAND - A NEW LOW COST AIRLINE FOR SCOTLAND
The tourism entrepreneur, Dhia Al-Ani, launched a new
low-cost airline, Air-Scotland and will oversee a £47m investment
in the venture as part of plans to turn Scotland into a transport ‘hub’
for travel to Spain, Belgium and Scandinavia.
The airline, a joint venture with privately owned Athens
firm Electra Airlines, announced plans this week to fly to six Spanish
destinations from Edinburgh and Glasgow with fares starting from as little
as £25.
Al-Ani suggested that more travellers from Belgium and
Scandinavia would travel to Scotland in order to take advantage of the
cheaper flights available here to journey on elsewhere in Europe. The
airline will publicly launch its services in Spain next month and Al-Ani
said he hoped to have a dedicated travel centre in Spain established in
two or three years to encourage trade there.
He said: "There are a lot of people in Spain who
want to come to Scotland, but they don’t want to travel through London.
We are interested in developing inbound as well as outbound traffic."
Figures released by airports group BAA show that in 2003,
17.3 million passengers travelled through Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen
airports - up from 15.9 million in 2001.
Observers say that before Scotland is reinvented as a
hub, Air-Scotland will first have to prove itself a success in Scotland’s
highly competitive low-cost airline market. However 32,000 people logged
on the new website, Air-Scotland.com in the first few minutes which caused
it to crash. Air-Scotland have had to rebuild their website to be able
to cope with the demand.
For more information log on to http://www.Air-Scotland.com.
£248,000 MAKEOVER FOR THE HERMITAGE
The Hermitage, near Dunkeld, is one of Perthshire’s
most popular tourist attractions and it is about to be given a makeover
in the region of £248,000 towards improvements.
The work is part of The Big Tree Country initiative, which
promotes Highland Perthshire as a home to many of Britain’s rarest
and most impressive trees and its history in commercial forestry. The
makeover will include better co-ordinated signage, interpretation features
and more information on the unique natural and cultural heritage. The
four main car parks serving The Hermitage are also being extensively improved.
Funding comes from Scottish Enterprise Tayside (SET), The Forestry Commission,
Perth and Kinross Council and the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).
The Hermitage, a National Trust for Scotland site, contains
dozens of species including the Douglas Fir, the tallest tree in Europe.
It is seen by more than 200,000 people each year and the plans aim to
make it an even more popular and accessible visitor attraction.
Ian Reynolds, tourism and rural development manager at
SET, said, "The Hermitage is a key site in Big Tree Country that
acts as a gateway to other areas included in the initiative, such as Queen’s
View and the Falls of Bruar. As such, it deserves to look its best."
The recent Enchanted Forest event at The Hermitage attracted
over 2600 visitors over an 11-day period, despite poor weather. Guided
by ranger staff in the guise of the famous hermit, visitors were given
a tour of The Hermitage and its features, including the Rail Braan, Ossian’s
Hall and waterfall, while spectacular lighting and sounds offered an out-of-the-ordinary
experience.
LOWER AIR FARES FOR SHETLAND COULD LEAD TO BOOST IN TOURISM
Public subsidies to lifeline air routes between Sumburgh
and the mainland, could be in place.
The call for public service obligations to be applied
to flights to Shetland is made by Tavish Scott, the Liberal Democrat MSP
for Shetland, in his response to the government’s consultation on
the future of air transport in the UK. Mr Scott
claimed: "Island tourism is, at present, a sleeping giant. It could
be awakened by lower airfares.
"The tourist industry in the islands is hampered
by the high cost of access to and from the islands, particularly in the
case of Shetland, which has the highest access costs. While both Shetland
and Orkney offer exceptional scenery, wildlife, and archaeological sites,
Orkney attracts many more visitors thanks the low cost of the ferry crossings
over the Pentland Firth, an option not open to Shetland.
"A recent success story for Scottish tourism has
been the growth of short-break holidays, which have boosted tourist numbers,
particularly in the spring and autumn. The islands largely miss out on
this market as the cost for a short trip is too high.
"If the cost of return flights dropped, the scope
for the development of short breaks would increase and the very short
island tourist season could be extended."
He said that, in addition to introducing public subsidies
to the routes, the government should also review the regulations applied
to the operation of the island airports which increased their operating
costs and restricted their opening hours.
CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK
THE election process for the forthcoming Cairngorms
National Park gets under way with the 13,000 residents who live within
the proposed boundary voting for the five community representatives who
will serve on the 25-strong park authority when it opens on 25 March.
The park area has been divided into five wards - three
in Highland, one in Moray/Aberdeenshire and one in Aberdeenshire/Angus
- with one community candidate being elected to represent each area for
four years.
The park authority will also be comprised of ten people
appointed by the Executive and ten nominated by local authorities - five
from Highland Council, three from Aberdeenshire Council and one each from
Moray and Angus councils.
A key early task of the National Park Authority will be
to prepare and consult on a National Park Plan for the Cairngorms. This
will set out the NPA’s policy in relation to the management of the
park.
The park will be the biggest in Britain at 1,466 square
miles.
DISCOVERY, DUNDEE VISITOR ATTRACTION, NOMINATED FOR MUSEUM AWARD
Discovery Point has been nominated for the most prestigious
and richest museum award in Britain. It is the only Scottish qualifier
among 12 listed for the £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize 2003 for British
museums and galleries announced on the 14 January 2003.
The attraction has undergone a four-year renewal programme
at a cost of around £800,000 and was completed in March.
The Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries is open
to all registered museums and galleries in the UK. Applicants must have
opened, redeveloped, or launched a new project or innovative programme
of activity that has come to fruition in the calendar year to 31 December
2003. All projects must show lasting value and complement existing activities
and facilities and applicants must be able to show public support and
enthusiasm for the project.
The 2003 shortlist will be announced in March. The winner
will be announced on Thursday, 15th May.
For more information on the Gulbenkian Prize see http://www.thegulbenkianprize.org.uk/
TAYMOUTH CASTLE SET TO BECOME WORLD'S SECOND, SEVEN STAR HOTEL
One of the world’s leading hotel groups is believed
to be in talks to buy Taymouth Castle and transform its fading grandeur
into a rival to Gleneagles.
The Four Seasons group intends to spend millions of pounds
on buying and upgrading the Perthshire castle, one of the largest in Scotland
in private ownership, into one of the world’s leading hotels.
One possibility suggested is that it could be transformed
into Scotland’s only seven-star hotel. There is only one other seven-star
hotel in the world, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
Taymouth Castle, at Kenmore near Aberfeldy, has been at
the centre of years of speculation over its future.
EDINBURGH'S UNDERGROUND CITY
STILL HAUNTED
New evidence of ghosts in Edinburgh’s underground
city have been recorded on tape by a radio producer. Debbie McPhail claims
to have made a recording of a ghoulish voice hissing the words: "Get
out" or "Go away" in Gaelic.
The otherworldly voice ruined a recording Debbie was making
in Edinburgh underground vaults with the former rugby international Norrie
Rowan, who owns a section of the underground city. Debbie
recalls "When I was listening back to it, I
could hear Norrie Rowan chatting and then I heard another voice.
"It was close by to the microphone because you can
tell if voices are far away or not. I knew it wasn’t the presenter
or Norrie because the voice had a slightly Irish accent.
"When the presenter came back up I asked him who
they had met in the vault and he said nobody. I asked a colleague who
spoke Gaelic and she said they could be saying ‘get out’ or
‘go away’."
Gordon Stewart, assistant director at Mercat Tours, which
conducts visits around the vaults said the recording could be the first
actual evidence of psychic phenomena in the vault. "It is an unusual
story and quite chilling. I think it could be the first time anything
like this has been recorded in Edinburgh.
"People who come on our tours have been scratched,
had their hands jostled and come into contact with unknown things."
Psychologist Richard Wiseman, who has conducted research
into the paranormal goings on beneath Edinburgh’s South Bridge, said
a third of the subjects in his study had some sort of experience in the
vaults, including having their clothes pulled, hearing their names whispered
or feeling tugs on their clothing.
SALMON SEASON OPENS
The salmon season opened on the River Tay with an event
attracting more than 100 enthusiasts at the Kenmore Hotel to parade down
to the riverbank. Television presenter Fiona Armstrong launched the season
by toasting the salmon and the river with a quaich of whisky. The event
was sponsored by Dewars World of Whisky.
Among the experts from around the world attending the
meeting in Kenmore will be the celebrity botanist David Bellamy, who was
at the opening ceremony on the 15th January.
However, the falling numbers of salmon in Scotland’s
rivers has raised concern about the future of the sport. The event was
followed by a seminar to discuss a variety of ways of restoring the salmon
habitat and species.
The Tay is regarded as Scotland’s premier salmon
fishing river and the contribution that salmon fishing makes to tourism
and the local economy is seen as vitally important.
The drop in salmon numbers in the last five years has
been dramatic on the Tay, prompting the creation of the Tay Foundation
to raise money to support the improvement of salmon stocks and to ensure
the survival of the sport, with the knock-on effects for the tourist industry
and environment as a whole.
The launch of the salmon season on the Tay is traditionally
regarded as the official opening of the season across the UK.
OPPOSITION TO NEW QUARRY AT QUEEN'S VIEW
Protesters claim that plans to develop a granite quarry
on a 25-acre site near Tarland, in Aberdeenshire, will ruin the vista
of the picturesque Queen’s View - a favourite picnic spot of Victoria.
The beauty spot gained its name after she first came across
the spectacular view while travelling on RoyalDeeside. But now, villagers
and environmentalists fear one of the finest views in Scotland will be
spoiled by a proposal to extract two million cubic feet of pink granite
from a new quarry, just 200 metres from the official viewpoint.
Alex Sim Plant Hire, a Devon-based firm, has lodged an
application with Aberdeenshire Council to quarry the granite on a 12-hectare
site at nearby Craiglich.
Residents, however, claim the development will leave a
scar on the landscape which will be visible from a number of nearby peaks,
popular with tourists, climbers and hillwalkers. And they have been joined
in their opposition to the plan by Scottish Natural Heritage, which claims
it would affect "an area of landscape significance".
Stephen Hillier, an environmental scientist at Aberdeen’s
Macaulay Land Research Institute and who lives near Queen’s View,
is leading the campaign against the development. He said he had written
to Prince Charles, for his support.
Alex Sim, the quarry developer, said last night that he
understood why people might be against the plan. But he argued that the
new quarry would bring badly needed jobs to the Lower Dee valley.
The application is expected to go before a meeting of
Aberdeenshire Council’s Marr area committee next month.
NEW FLIGHTS FOR ABERDEEN
Aberdeen Airport received a major boost
yesterday, when bmi announced plans to introduce new flights between Europe’s
oil capital and Norwich, and the creation of more than 40 jobs before the
end of the year.
The airline will begin operating four return flights a
day between Aberdeen and Norwich from 31 March.
BUSINESS TOURISM SCOTLAND ANNUAL MEETING, GLASGOW
Business Tourism Scotland was held at the Scottish Exhibition
and conference centre and Radisson SAS hotel. on the 16th - 17 January 2003.
The panel, chaired by Mike Closier, Chairman of Business
Tourism Scotland and Chief Executive of SECC, will include: Adam Bates,
BTA Head of Business Tourism; Steven Carter, General Manager of St Andrews
Bay Golf Resort and Spa; Ian Grant, former Chairman of Scottish Tourist
Board and present Chairman of SEC Ltd and the Cairngorm Partnership; Ian
Reid, General Manager, UK and Ireland, British Airways; and Michael Hirst,
Chairman of the Business Tourism Partnership.
Mike Watson, the Scottish tourism minister, highlighted
the importance of business tourism to the economy and the Executive's
commitment to boosting it on the final day of the conference. He outlined
the new organisation called EventScotland which will be up and running
by the spring. This joint venture between the Executive and VisitScotland
will receive funding of £10m over the first three years of its life.
Business tourism represents nearly 25% of the total tourism
spend in Scotland, and that the average business tourist spends about
50% more than the average leisure tourist.
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