On the day that the National Museum of Scotland reopens in Chambers Street, Edinburgh, there has been news lately that two other visitor attractions have received grants so that they can improve facilities for visitors.
Bannockburn will receive £10 million

Have you visited a distillery? Scotland has 52 whisky visitor centres and, last year, over one and a quarter million visitors spent just short of £27 million in them. That is the summary of a report published by the Scotch Whisky Association.

Think of the Scottish Borders and one thing that will come to mind will be fishing. Salmon fishing. The Tweed is one of the great salmon fishing rivers we have but over some recent years catches have been disappointing. Not last year though which has been a bumper one. In fact it has been the best year since records began 64 years ago.

Two stories reported in The Scotsman this week should gladden hearts in their tourism industry. Firstly they have received grants from the EU which will be used to build a new visitor centre at the Orkney chambered tomb, Maeshowe and the redevelopment of the Highlanders Museum outside Inverness. Secondly, a rather reclusive American millionaire who had already given $4 million to the National Trust for Scotland has left a legacy in his will which might match the sum.

That, according to Visit Britain, is what is attracting people to that part of the country. This is one of many results to be found in a report snappily titled, “Activities Undertaken by Visitors from Overseas in Different Parts of Britain.” But there is a lot on this report to digest, not just the interesting bits that say why visitors go to different regions of our countries. Just as interesting is how much they spend in those regions and the disparities that arise.

If you can’t beat the snow, join it!

Thats what lots of people decided to do last weekend and, this weekend, even more may venture north. A Nevis a week ago, over 800 Skiers/Sledgers/Snowboarders opted to “Go with the snow” taking to the slopes which opened for snowsports a fortnight earlier than planned on 4-5 December 2010.

The Isle of Arran is known as ‘Scotland in Miniature’ owing to its remarkable mix of mountains, rolling hills, charming villages and beautiful coastline. Resident, Claire Richardson, tells us how to ‘do Arran in a day’

Cast aside any preconception of Scotland’s biggest city as an industrial hell hole and give Glasgow a go. CD Traveller lets you in on five things you really mustn’t miss in Scotland’s capital of cool

Vanessa Collingridge has travelled the world from the frozen Antarctic to Tahiti. Here, the renowned geographer, explorer, author and presenter shares her experiences with CD Traveller and reveals why Scotland will always hold a special place in her heart

Three women, one dog, a geology hammer and a long weekend

At the end of May I turned 32. No biggie (well, a bigger number than I would am comfortable with!) but, in February, some friends and I thought it would be nice to get away for a few days. May is a good time to visit Glen Coe and, since the Open University Geological Society had organised a couple of days “geologizing” in Glen Coe, that’s where we headed.

Courtesy in tourism is considered a must-have. Any organisation that deals with the public tends to have had training at some stage so that they can achieve high customer satisfaction ratings. Usually it comes down to politeness and a willingness to help – and that seems to satisfy most providers.
But going the extra mile to [...]

Everyone wants to make the most of their time on earth and Rough Guides’ new compact sized book, Make the Most of Your Time on Earth, tells you how to go about it. We’ve handpicked five of Britain’s best travel experiences to whet the appetite

If some of the ski holiday companies are to be believed some of us have got so enamoured of the white stuff that we are “inundating” (their word not mine) companies with enquiries about skiing holidays.
Can this be true? Haven’t they seen enough of the stuff? Have they forgotten already the need for clearing paths and roadways, waiting for non-existent trains and buses to get to work, delayed flights to take them to ski resorts and no milk in the villages because the delivery trucks can’t get through.

Regular readers can stop reading right now if they don’t want to hear me talk again about providing an adequate safety net for passengers outside the ATOL bonding scheme.

As you probably all know by now, those passengers who bought a package holiday under the Globespan name are probably protected under the ATOL system. Those of you who bought just a flight with a credit card (not a debit card)and paid more than £100 may be able to claim a refund from the credit card providers. The rest of you, I’m afraid, will probably be out of pocket. And for those of you who are covered then you still have the hassle and probable expense of rebooking with another carrier if there is availability. To check your position, see www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1985&pagetype=90.

The collapse of the Globespan group will hit Scotland particularly badly.

Over the weekend over 40 events really saw the end of Scotland’s Homecoming Year. As you will remember this was a year long celebration of things Scottish and a determined effort to draw people back to their roots. It was almost an attempt to woo people back much as the Irish have successfully done. The timing, though this couldn’t have been planned, gave Scotland a strong tourism appeal whilst other countries laboured to attract visitors. With St Andrew’s Day today heralding the official end, it is probably too early to say how successful it was although that hasn’t stopped people from hailing it as a runaway success.

I’ve had a few days off so there has been has been less than usual posted.My break has been a bit unusual in that I have done it all by train. One thing it has taught me is that not many trains offer wifi free or otherwise. And having spent most of the time in [...]

Over 300 events will take place in Scotland this year as the country celebrates what it has termed it’s Homecoming Year.

Although it began with the new year events, it kicks off properly with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns over the weekend of the 24/25th of January and ends, not unsurprisingly with St Andrews’s day on November 30th.