Visitscotland.com (also the name of the Scottish Tourist Board website) is the trading name of e-Tourism Ltd a private company 60% owned initially by SchlumbergerSema & now by Atos Origin, a French Multinational.   In early 2002, the Scottish Executive as part of their plans to "develop" the Scottish Tourism Industry, set up this company as a private public partnership with VisitScotland (formerly the Scottish Tourist Board), Area Tourist Boards and a Treasury funding body as minority shareholders.  Area Tourist Boards were, by threats of withdrawal on vital funding, then effectively blackmailed into signing up to an arrangement whereby the company would handle all bookings via a call centre, developing the process into a selling operation, with trained telephone salespersons, rather than a service.   Potential customers (or consumers as the company prefers to call them) are discouraged from contacting establishments directly by various underhand methods such as making contact details difficult to find and placing website entries of businesses that refuse to accept call centre bookings at the bottom of listings on the website.   Businesses that refused to accept their small-print ridden terms & conditions were summarily removed from the website.   When a booking is made via the call centre, the 10% deposit charged, goes not to the business, but to visitscotland.com together with the booking fee of £3.00.

As a valued customer, you can help establishments to oppose this scheme which we believe will seriously damage tourism in Scotland, by booking your accommodation only with the business itself.   Feel free to use both the call centre and website to obtain information (though judging by most accounts you would be unwise to rely on it), but book direct with the business, saving yourself the £3.00 booking fee and the business the 10% commission.   We confidently expect visitscotland.com to fail in eventually, as both its website and call centre are proving unattractive to most visitors, and its corporate accounts show increasing losses (£2.3M  for 2003), but with your help the scheme will crash earlier rather than later with consequent benefit to Scotland's Tourism Industry. 

Update on the above - September 2006.

 In July 2006, the majority private partner of eTourism Ltd, gave away (Yes - gave away) most of its shares to another company, Tiscover, who operate other tourism websites in Europe.  Further shares were given to VisitScotland.   In exchange, Tiscover agreed a loan (amount unspecified, but thought to be several million), to the company, thus bailing them out of  bankrupcy.   VisitScotlad's spin machine publicised this as a great success.

If you still wish to visit the Scottish Tourist Board website click here. www.visitscotland.com   

To find accommodation in Dumfries & Galloway try our local website www.visitsouthwestscotland.com