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Tourist chiefs widen net

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Published Date: 21 October 2007
By MURDO MACLEOD
WE HAVE the history, the scenery, the culture - even the Loch Ness Monster. All we need now is to win the Google wars.
Scottish tourism chiefs are offering IT experts £300,000, over three years, to get the country to the top of internet searches.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! use a complex series of mathematical equations to figure out which internet sites should be ranked highest in their lists. In addition to scanning the words on a web page, they also analyse how many other relevant sites are connected to the page.

Chris Lynch, of VisitScotland, said: "Our aim is to get the best possible position for our pages and information. If you're not on the first couple of (ranking) pages you will not be chosen."



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1

Mallory,

21/10/2007 07:05:22

£100k a year for search engine optimisation? Why not just spend it on advertising!

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=vis...

2

JMC,

dumfries 21/10/2007 07:08:14

What a truly awful admission this is. Chris Lynch appears to be saying that even though Visitscotland has provided millions of pounds in subsidy to the private company visitscotland.com the web site continues to fail. How could it have happened that visitscotland.com does not already employ somebody capable of SEO. Surely the "Service Agreement" includes clauses and penalties for attaining prominence in search engine rankings.
In truth is does not matter if vs.com appears at the top of a search providing other web sites relating to Scotland and tourism are visible.
There are tens of thousands of websites on the internet relating to Tourism in Scotland all competing with each other for a high ranking, but only one doing it with tax payers money.
At a time when Visitscotland are closing Tourist Information Centers is this really a wise and prudent way to spend our money?

3

Cadgers,

Perth 21/10/2007 07:41:18

VisitScotland? Useless shower of incompetents.

4

Guga II,

Rockall 21/10/2007 08:43:58

#3 Cadgers. I'll second that motion.

5

Airds,

Castle Douglas 21/10/2007 08:55:59

If the National Tourism website, visitscotland.com, was properly designed and operated like those of many of our competitors, instead of stagnating in the hands of a company interested only in selling accommodation and utilising obsolescent, foreign-owned technology, it would be obtaining high rankings as it is. To spend a further £300,000 of taxpayers' money on top of all the hidden subsidies already pouring into visitscotland.com in futile attempts to keep it afloat, is indefensible. Let's all hope Jim Mather wields the axe soon.

6

Irene.c,

Sandyhills 21/10/2007 09:48:35

We have a letting agency selling holiday accommodation in Scotland and we bring lots of visitors to Scotland; any profits stay in Scotland, they do not go to shareholders in Austria - so can we have a hand out from the Government to help with our search engine optimisation?

I guess the answer is no, but how can such a handout be justified for VisitScotland.com?

I would not mind if they were selling Scotland, but they are not, they are selling out Scotland by selling the accommodation which is the easiest to sell just to get their commissions, i.e. in Edinburgh, while to sell the rest of the country to the world would actually take some real marketing! They have been given the brand for about 8 pieces of silver by the last idiot Executive.

Let us hope the situation changes soon.

7

Max Speed,

Highlands 21/10/2007 09:58:53

Operating a very successfull B&B here in the Highlands, our bookings via visit Scotland are NIL.
Most of our traffic comes from our own web site/local community site and membership of an exclusive B&B group.
We have to pay for grading etc, but as more and more taxpayers cash is thrown at this financial mineshaft,the faces in the pin strip suits are just after big salaries and pensions and obviously try to feed us the mushroom method.
The sooner this complete waste of taxpayers cash is shut down the better.

8

JMC,

dumfries 21/10/2007 09:59:17

Google have got it right and it is time the Board of Visitscotland recognised this fact. The web site visitscotland.com has been designed with only one purpose in mind and that is to sell bed nights. They even go to the extent of trying to keep the visitor away from the detailed information on the accommodation owners own web site. If visitscotland redesigned the site so that it was of interest to the visitor, provided information on every aspect of Scotland and gave easily accessible links to futher information , then the site would soar in the rankings and Scotland the country and all those living in it would benefit.
Spending £300,000 trying to fool google is a waste of money; instead, buy the CE of Visitscotland "SEO for Dummies".
And where will this money be spent? Livingstone is my best guess. Visitscotland.com the failing web site company charges up to £1000 per day for the service of a single person. The money will not go far and the ranking will not change!

9

Alison & Adrian Clements,

Kintyre 21/10/2007 10:03:01

If google "analyse how many other relevant sites are connected to the page", then the obvious answer is to CONNECT to all accommodation providers websites - they get their ranking and we get visibility !!

10

Max Speed,

Highlands 21/10/2007 10:04:18

Just another case of running around in ever decreasing circles,wasting tax payers money,chasing the accommodation providers who already have very effient web sites and their own booking systems ,time the whole bang shoot was shut down and a push to promote Scotland in a similar way as is done by other countries very very well.

11

Joel,

Florida 21/10/2007 10:22:19

All top companies will devote major resource to ensure search engine optimisation gets maximum website exposure to their target audience, so good on VisitScotland! Friends and colleagues here in the US think their website is actually one of the best and most comprehensive operated at the national level. It is THE place to go to find out most of what is on offer in Scotland - which is what vistors are after, without the pain of visiting dozens of sites of very variable content and quality of content.

12

SouthernSkye,

Bonnie Bonn 21/10/2007 11:09:24

7. Max Speed, Highlands

Similar for us....My wife runs our B&B. We are busy from March through end Oct (then we close....I like Herself to have a wee bit of time off ;-). We never used VS, all our immediate neighbours who run B&B also do not. It is simply not a viable option unless you are running in the top-end of the accomodation price bracket.
Most of our booking come from repeat booking, our own website, Isle of Skye related sites and one or two other B&B promoting sites.

13

,

21/10/2007 11:30:35
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason: Scotsman Import, Original comment id: 1074250, Article id was mapped to record!
14

Mart on Skye,

21/10/2007 11:49:57

I just put Scotland and vacation into google and Visitscotland is the site at the top of the page.

What's the problem?

The page it takes you to is rubbish, unhelpful and uninteresting and doesn't lead you to anything that may help you in your search for something to inspire you to come to Scotland.

15

Tourism Operator,

Canada 21/10/2007 12:06:12

As a provider of incoming visitors I can only pass on my own experience and that of my clients. We most agree that the Visitscotland website is pretty hopeless. There are many privately owned sites that provide real info for real visitors.....why we even use the occasional B&B site for local content which I guess is what part of this debate is about. From an outsider, the only ones who seem to be winning here are the directors of visitscotland.

16

Mandarin,

Berwickshire 21/10/2007 13:00:09

There is a lot of fuss in the industry about how VS works. With the number of establishments using it I guess it does something right whereas on the other hand you have the blinkered view of reclaimvs who see it as just a giant monster out to fleece everything scottish.

If they spend this money and it generates more business for the country who will complain then?

For whatever reason, VS runs as a private company so let it spend its cash on whatever it wants.

17

Boy Wonder,

21/10/2007 14:07:08

This forum has witnessed allegations that VisitScotland is staffed by idiots for months. I know I'm one of those who lay accusations on their doorstep.

And they've just gone public with the extent of their idiocy.

Once more in the pages of Hootsmon am I vindicated!!!

How jolly!!! :)

18

Airds,

Castle Douglas 21/10/2007 14:09:49

#17 Do your homework first, Mandarin, please.
1. VS (VisitScotland) is a public sector organisation set up to (supposedly) promote Scottish tourism. It is not a private company.
2. visitscotland.com (eTourism Ltd.) is a private public partnership attempting to operate (unsuccessfully) a commercial business as an accommodation agency.
3. Much public money flows from VS to vs.com to prop them up via free advertising etc.
4. No evidence exists that the website is generating any additional business for Scotland.
5 As the posts from many accommodation and other businesses prove, the website is failing to perform.
6. Since 2002 there has been a severe reduction in the number of providers working with VS, especially smaller operations.
Does all that not tell you something?

19

JMC,

21/10/2007 14:24:44

#19 Peter: The service catalogue can be found at
http://www.reclaimvs.com/foia.html
This information was fought for under the Freedom of Information Act. As a quick summary visitscotland.com pays vs £100,000 for its data base of tourism businesses and gets millions of pounds worth of free advertising in every brochure produced plus television. In exchange for this Vs pays visitscotland.com a minimum of £1,200,000 per annum for services. Not a bad way to run a business. I have not even mentioned the booking fees, commission and considerable additional costs for mini web sites.

20

B&B owner,

South Uist 21/10/2007 16:35:03

The vast majority of the earlier comments point to the obvious failure of vs.com to directly support the tourist business to Scotland and most particularly support the "lower" end of the market - the B&B sector.
Is it any wonder that "we" - I run a small B&B with a substantial web site which vs.com would much prefer that potential guests do not visit (for obvious reasons)- do not support the VS.com objectives. Do we have to go on about their role as an online booking agency rather than a general tourism marketing site?

What is more bizarre to me is why Scottish Executive cannot see this! - or can they?

21

Craig Cockburn,

Edinburgh 21/10/2007 18:16:48

Since visitscotland.com is already #1 in Google.com and Google.co.uk for the term Scotland, it would be useful if they would explain which terms they wanted to be #1 for, and in which search engines for which countries.

See here for my results:

http://www.siliconglen.com/software/seo.html

22

AlanG,

Edinburgh 21/10/2007 18:21:18

Irene at #6, don't think that the VisitScotland.com business is coming to Edinburgh because it isn't. I haven't the faintest idea where it goes but despite working daily with their website to update accommodation, my business in Edinburgh has not had one single advance booking from them in 2007. I now pay commission to many agencies all of whom have filled the gap left by this clumsy, inefficient and confusing booking site. The market is now global and people like Expedia, E-Bookers and Active Hotels are being found on page one under most major key words. Visit Scotland.com should be the window to Scotland, not a commercial agency trying to sell themselves for a profit at any cost and attempting unsuccessfully to take on these more efficient organisations.

23

Jock Tamson,

Scotland, Caledonia, Alba 21/10/2007 19:26:48

IT students in my local know how to do this.

24

Jeff Slater,

Kelso, Borders 21/10/2007 22:31:25

As the person the runs www.borderstouristboard.com the web site for our own own independent tourism organisation I cannot understand what all the fuss is about. We launched on June 7th and used Google adwords to get going. It is very efficient and able to target the immediate market. To date we have generated more than 12000 visitors to our site on a budget of £200 per month. £100,000 per year would go an awful long way.

The main problem for VS.com is that Google recognises that there are few incoming links to that site because most of the 'members' of Visit Scotland do not think it worthy to provide a link. Watch this space - will VS.com suddenly incoming links as part of their terms and conditions. If so everyone will be asked to do their work for them. It simply doesn't work on the web if you don't have any friends!

25

Alan Kimber,

Fort William 22/10/2007 11:47:49

Giving this amount of cash to VisitScotland.com is scandalous. Propping up a failing website which does not deliver the goods will not work. What is required is to cancel the current contract and start again with a member-driven website, based on local knowledge, not one that appears to operate only for the contractors benefit. Maybe the contractors for http://www.visitireland.com/ should be given the task. That site is very good as far as accommodation providers are concerned.

The 100k a year would be better spent on TIC's and more local knowledge bases. Unfortunately it appears that TIC's are in danger of being run down as well, if the Moray Council is anything to go by.

Many of the members I represent are leaving VisitScotland.com as it simply does not make good marketing sense to spend cash with them.

Alan Kimber
Chair of Scottish Independent Hostels

26

marmalade sandwich,

running a tourism business 22/10/2007 13:17:01

It is VisitScotland's job to get people to Scotland. It is individual businesses operators jobs to get visitors to their businesses.

VisitScotland.com should have much greater marketing content with less emphasis on the booking agency aspect.

27

Bruno Baumgärtner,

Isle of Arran 22/10/2007 13:19:04

It would be wiser to spend 100'000 a year to setup 24h Accommodation Info sites on various places like Ferry Links, Motorway Service Stations, Railway Stations, etc. These can be equipped with phones and one presses the line to the establishment(s) which show (electronically) that they still have free rooms. And this for 24hours a day, during 365 days a year (in loop years for 366 days!!!). The price would probably give about 15 Points a year. Add the salaries from Riddle, Roughhead, Lederer and a few other STB Bosses and there would easily be 50 new points for the next three years.

Just as an aside: this is done with huge success in most continental countries, financed there through the mostly very independent local Tourism Organisation.


 

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