25 February 2008
A victory for grassroots tourism businesses in Scotland has been claimed in a long-running campaign against a commission-led website run for VisitScotland.
It has been announced by the tourism board that the controversial commission-driven website VisitScotland.com, launched as a public-private partnership in 2002, will be revamped from 2nd April 2008.
The company that runs the website, eTourism, were at the centre of the dispute. Its shareholders include technology company Tiscover and VisitScotland. The site has been making a loss since its launch and reportedly lost £1.5 million last year. This is despite attracting 11 million visitors last year, a level forecast to rise to almost 13 million in 2008.
Bed and breakfast owner Alan Keith, who has led the fight to have the website changed, said:
This decision is a triumph for the industry’s grassroots over corporate spin and misinformation.
Among the examples he gave was that:
Database results are returned on a random basis, with no precedence given to those giving eTourism ‘allocation’ of rooms on which to take undeclared commission.
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