Although I am a car and motor-racing enthusiast - and have been lucky enough to drive nearly all the classic cars we offer for hire - I also really enjoy a kind of liberation when part of a holiday involves no car travel at all.

This is a theme we will be developing further for 2009, with a number of new holiday options where you can “leave your car behind”, yet still be independent. Last month we had a fabulous weekend on exactly this basis. OK, we did drive to Oban (could have taken the train or a bus from Glasgow) but we parked up on the Friday afternoon and did not return to the car until Monday morning.

Our destination was the island of Colonsay, with a resident population of around 100, over two hours by ferry from Oban, and an hour from Islay, this is one of the more remote Hebridean islands. We have been there before but just as day trippers from Islay, so his time we were going to stay over. After sampling one of the island’s beers ( yes they do have a micro brewery! ) in the bar on the ferry to get us in the mood, we both felt a sense of adventure, of heading somewhere new and different. The arrival at Scalasaig (the “port” - well slipway) I was reminded of my Greek island-hopping past, when the arrival of the daily ferry was the big event, with, it seemed, most of the island down by the port, seeing who was coming and going, greeting friends and offering strangers rooms to rent. I was delighted even to see the manager of the hotel there with his 4WD to bring guests’ bags up the hill. Heather, mind you, decided we were fit enough to carry our own, so we waved to him and set off. Alright it was only about 5 minutes, but still..

So there we were, half an hour later, sitting down to dinner, feeling refreshed and excited about the weekend ahead, already picking up the special vibes of a remote island community, yet just a few hours after leaving the city lights of Glasgow.

We spent the next two days walking all over, exploring just a small number of the beaches - there is definitely one for every day of the week - getting soaked one day, and paddling on the sea the next, eating great food, enjoying a few local beers and generally chilling.

And the end result? Watch out for Colonsay featuring heavily in our 2009 holiday programme..

The autumn is probably the season when I spend most time away from the office touring Scotland, visiting the hotels and other business partners to discuss the past year and plans for the future, checking out some new options and formulating plans for the next year.

My first main trip this year was to Lewis, and a literally flying visit covering Stornoway and the west coast, plus a quick nip down to Harris. We will be increasing our accommodation options here for 2009, but not using any hotels. Every island is different in how it approaches tourism, and Lewis for me is remarkable as it is the guesthouse sector here which is leading the way - many of the hotels are very much focussed on corporate and groups business. There are now two 5 star guesthouses in the Stornoway area and we will be offering both of them. There are also several very good 4 star options too, which will be good reserves for us. I also enjoyed an excellent dinner in a restaurant in the centre of Stornoway - to a standard no other island town can manage. Although it was a Tuesday it was pretty busy, with some visitors, some business people and a marked number of younger locals, clearly home for a visit from the mainland - taking mum and/or dad out for a special meal. For me personally it was great to see that when someone with some talent puts their mind to it they can run a successful (this place as been going for several years) high quality restaurant in a small Scottish town - and this is not the only example in Stornoway apparently. Quite why other towns of a similar size can’t manage it is pretty frustrating  - there are a few in the west coast which are almost deserts when it come to good food.

While on Lewis I made sure to pop in to the Callanish (or Calanais) standing stones - one of my favourite spots in Scotland. Just like the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney the site is free to access - a perfect spot to catch sunset, or sunrise if you prefer and somewhere to visit more than once while you are on Lewis. I know there is a visitor centre/cafe (unlike at Brodgar), but is hidden from view from the circle itself and does some great home made soup.

Next morning before my appointments restarted I made sure to add another beach to my “collection” - I am ashamed to say I used to think Lewis did not “do” beaches, but am pleased to have changed my mind now. The beach at Tolsta was a fabulous place, approached over sand dunes so its full extent is only gradually  revealled to you -a wide sweep of sand, a couple of great headlands and views across to the Summer Isles and the mainland. Oh, of course my other favourite feature of a great Scottish beach - I had it all to myself.

By that afternoon I was in Harris, enjoying Donnie’s perfect Cullen skink at the hotel we have worked with for several years, and catching up with Dena. Just before returning to the airport Dena took me to an amazing place- the Seallam heritage centre, an absolute must visit in the islands, especially if you have an interest in family history. They have records of every family who lived in the Outer Hebrides, and rather than you tracing your ancestors, it’s about finding where you fit in with the records they have. These are built not just from the written official records but augmented by local records, even oral history. Even if you don’t have an islander in your past, the exhibition areas were excellent, with a particularly comprehensive section on St Kilda. Now there’s somewhere I must go.

Regular readers of this blog will, perhaps, have been frustrated that it has not been updated recently.

A wee systems issue prevented this for a while, but we are now back on track.

Over the past few months I have been lucky enough to have been out and about quite a bit in various parts of Scotland, finding new holiday options and checking up on current ones.

We spent Easter weekend on one of my favourite islands - Gigha, a small island off Kintyre. We manged to walk a fair bit and even enjoyed sunshine, in between snow showers. Still, it was March.

In April we took a group of classic car drivers to Ardnamurchan - the most westerly point of mainland Britain - and then on to Mull. During our stay we drove right around the island and crossed to Iona - another of my favourite tiny Scottish islands. The weather was fabulous- as is usually the case for this group, and the evening delights of Tobermory were much enjoyed.

Later that month it was up to Sutherland, and the northwest highlands with some Dutch friends.

We had a glorious drive north on the Sunday, reminding me once again the contrasts of this country, leaving Glasgow at 11, passing through the highlands, with lunch north of Pitlochry and afternoon tea beside the Cromarty firth. Then finally to the remarkable emptiness of Sutherland.

To complete our trip we had a fabulous trip with Ian - the creel fisherman whose trip is included in our new Scottish Seafood Trail. Lunch from the catch - prepared by Jess - was the largest “heap” of langoustine and squat lobsters I have ever seen. Remarkably, we ate every one!

In between times I have been checking out new options in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perthshire and Argyll.

Now we are into the peak booking season there is less time to leave the office, but by August I hope to be back on the road, with my list filling up already.

Our new brochure has arrived from the printer and will be mailed to our database over the next couple of weeks. Although we didn’t change the basic layout, we did make a large number of small changes to improve its usability. The main change was the front cover picture, as ever year.
During our October trip to Barra, we had a couple of hours before our return flight and as it was sunny day we decided to find a new beach to explore. We ended up at Traigh Eais, which is in fact the beach across the road from the airport - though not the one the planes land on.

As we walked over the dunes and the sun chased the clouds away, we both realised that this would be an ideal place to try to take some website pictures and even to experiment for some front cover options. We had already pretty much decided what look we wanted and for the next 30 minutes set about trying to work out some angles from the dunes, with plenty of beach, blue sea and the headland in the background. Each of us in turn headed onto the sand to try giving the enormous sweep some perspective, though as it was October we were both wearing big coats and that idea was soon shelved. Still we worked away, took over 100 pictures and were confident that there would be a good candidate in the bag. The sun was shining, the sea had just enough waves and the clouds were fluffy
Taking a break we walked together down the dunes and along the beach to our left. In a few minutes we came across a large tree trunk, neatly sawn off around 3 metres from the base, lying on its side. Heather walked up to it to take a look. “Stop”, I said, ” I want to take a picture”. From my angle the tree had an interesting angle and had a mysterious look. How had it got there, where was it from, why was it cut at such a height? How long will it stay? Anyway Heather retreated, leaving a few small footprints in the previous pristine sand. I took 3 shots. “That could be quite fun for the website, or as a screensaver, I said. We walked on. After climbing the dunes again we took another 30 pictures in the other direction, from the dunes, but the light was not so good and we headed to the aiport and for Glagsow.

We sat down in early January to choose the front cover picture. I did a shortlist exercise reducing our library to 10. As I was browsing I threw in one of the tree trunk just so we could enjoy it again. Of course, when we looked at the selection together, it was perfect - definitely See Scotland differently.

My only regret is that you can still see Heather’s footprints on the sand!

My thoughts turned to Trip Advisor this week when they announced their TOP HOTELS list for 2007 and Scotland’s sole representation in any ratings was one Edinburgh B&B. That got me ranting - for a while anyway. I know we work with fantastic hotels offering great experiences and value for money - where were they? As I look at the list I see numerous luxury hotels in glamorous places, often very sunny climates, charging hundreds of pounds per night. A level playing field?

Don’t get me wrong - Trip Advisor has been one of my reference points for researching new hotels and areas since we started, and makes a valuable addition to travel planning, for consumers and professional alike. I do, however, take much of what is written with a pinch of salt - after all its just subjective opinions, which are often contradictory. I know that changes in key personnel, chefs, managers and of course owners can change a hotel completely. Trip Advisor takes no account of these. Many of the hotels I know personally there still have reviews from 5 years ago when previous management was in place. That these historic reviews stay live can be unfair and of course misleading - in either a negative or positive way. Of course, like any research tool you also have to read between the lines on the reviews themselves. Happy to say, that increasingly you will see a comment starting off “Contrary to the other reviews on this site, I etc etc” so many of us want to make up our own minds.
So, while TA is one of my early research sources and one I keep referring to during the year - I certainly rely on my own judgement when choosing a hotel to work with, through direct experience and then listening to what our customers say during the year - after making sure we present the hotel to the most suitable audience. Based on what our customers tell us, we do (nearly always) get it right.

Some things never change.

1.Occasionally weeks go past before I write a new blog entry.

2. I love exploring Scotland to find new places and experiences for our holidays.

One of my acid tests of any holiday is what is the journey like - and we all know how a delayed flight or similar can ruin the enjoyment of the first few days of a holiday, or indeed, if on the way home, turn the pleasure of the experience too quickly into a distant memory.

It was while flying to Barra in October that we came up with the concept of Great Scottish Journeys. Yes, the flight was delayed - by a couple of hours due to fog, but somehow, especialy once we were skimming just above the clouds, watching the highest peaks poking through into the blue like some ethereal landscape, we both thought the same: this journey was already a highlight of the experience.

It’s the same feeling get when I catch a ferry to one of the islands. Maybe its because catching a ferry from my home island was always associated with the anticipation of new adventures, or the pleasure of going home.

Driving these days in much of the world is increasingly a tiresome chore. In a previous career I had to drive regularly from Glasgow to Aberdeen and Invernes, adn occasionally to many other key towns in Scotland. Of course such trips were sometimes a chore…but then you would catch a snowy peak or glassy loch in your side window, and then think wow - my colleagues are currently on the M25/M61/M4…..am I the lucky one or what! My favourite trip was to Fort William, which of course meant going through Glencoe. For those of you who don’t know it, it is truly awe-inspiring, and to some extent part of it’s appeal to me is that it’s a main route through the Highlands. Too easy for the business traveller to moan about the tourist traffic or the lack of places to grab a coffee. Try it for yourself!

It’s been a busy, exciting and definitely better than expected autumn so far.

We had our best ever September, with many highlights including a group from Poland for 5 days, who had a brilliant time in Edinburgh and the Highlands -  and apparently went home with half a distillery.

We enjoyed a memorable weekend with a group of classic car drivers with a tour that included the Mull of Kintyre, where the sun came out and it was almost warm.

My end of year recce trips all seem to have taken place in sunny weather - watch out for some new additions to our 2008 programme.

Then last week Heather and I fulfilled a long held ambition and flew to Barra, where the airport is also the beach, and the timetable is subject to tides, stayed a night, enjoyed walks on long sandy beaches and some great home-made scones before heading back to Glasgow.

Then, a massive surprise for us, we won our category in the prestigious 2007 Scottish Thistle Awards - known as the Tourism Oscars, at a glittering event in Edinburgh. I can’t believe it ( and haven’t stopped grinning since!) It was especially appropriate that we were able to share the occasion with several different people who have made it all possible - Jennette, Shona, Pam, Arthur and Julie. It was just a shame that Azra, who is currently getting to grips with having a young baby and a toddler was not able to join us.

The next two months are the time when we finalise preparations for the new season and there are plenty of new initiatives in hand, with lots of new holiday ideas of course, as well as an online booking and payment system, new cancellation insurance policy and a whole new back office system.

One thing will not change is our focus on giving our customers great value, and our end of year customer satisfaction scores are pretty amazing. For those of you who have travelled with us you will know that we ask you to rate every aspect of your McKinlay Kidd holiday experience. We analyse all scores and take our suppliers through their performances to see where they can improve and to congratulate them (more often than not) where they are proving excellent experiences. For ourselves the key score is whether a customer would recommend our services to their friends, and this year - when we have looked after more clients than ever the recommendation level has risen to a superb 96%.

The challenge now is to make 2008 even better.

Heather and I, as well as all the team in the office, were delighted when we learnt a few days ago that we have been shortlisted for the Scottish Tourism oscars - otherwise known as the Scottish Thistle Awards. For a business just over 4 years old this fabulous recognition for what we have achieved. We are all looking forward very much to the awards ceremony itself at the end of October.

With another record breaking summer season begining to come to an end, even more valuable recognition comes from the hundreds of questionnaires and letters we have received from satisfied customers. Whether its been after wildlife holidays on Mull, island-hopping in the Outer Hebrides or fortnight tours of the Highlands, we can see that we are pretty much getting it right. Of course occasionaly things do go wrong, no matter how hard we try, but these have been rare.

What comes across consistently is that our clients are thoroughly enjoying the personal service they receive from hotel staff, guides and other people they meet during their stay. This individual approach and focus on customer service is one of the key factors I look for as we seek out new hotels to add to our portfolio. Over the next few months I will spending as much time as possible touring the country catching up wth our current business partners, reviewing plans for 2008 and very much on the look-out for new options. Its certainly an enjoyable part of the job - though it is stll not that easy to find just the right places for our clients.

It has been rather too long since the past post here, so as the autumn progresses I plan to be much more frequent keeping readers up to date with our new plans and the good and bad I find as I travel around…watch this space!

Just finished reading a good and rather different book - the Next Big Thing by Mike Russell. Described as a fable of modern Scotland, it tells the story of what happens when the Scottish establishment go looking for a big idea to invigorate Scottish tourism and is loosely based on the (true) story of John Lennon’s childhood holidays in the far northwest - Durness near Cape Wrath. There are quite a few clearly recognisable characters - the author has been an SNP politician for many years - but some pretty sound reflections on tourism today.

There is no doubt in my mind that Scottish tourism has incredible - and still unrealised - potential. The danger of always looking for the next Big Idea is that in fact most ideas are small to start with. Some of the best businesses we work with have grown by gradually improving and developing great but small ideas. What they have in common is that they have not stood still. Very few of them have had any meaningful support from the state, whose focus is always on the Big numbers. I guess that’s only to be expected, after all a business founded on grants and subsidies risks being dependent on them and there are plenty of examples from “big business ideas”, that when the grants run out so the business closes or moves on to the next country.

The SNP are now our (minority) government and one of their highlight policies was doing away with the Scottish Tourist Board - Visit Scotland and coming it with the business development organisations- Scottish Enterprise et al. To be frank not a policy I agreed with- so let’s see what comes out. In the meantime those of us who have chosen to make a living from Scotland as a tourist destination will keep focussed improving our own businesses, what ever politicians and state agencies throw at us. And yes, there is still the hope that we can find the next big thing.

Just back from a flying (well I went by ferry!) visit to Mull. Keeping up to speed with all the news from one of our most popular destinations.
Checked out some additional accommodation and went round all the hotels we currently use.
Everyone gearing up for the late May holiday period - one of the busiest on the island. There has been some great weather on the west coast of Scotland over the last 6 weeks - better than many over the past weekend for example. A few days of drizzle with us now, but fingers crossed for a return to sunshine thereafter.
Great news on the wildlife front: minke whale sightings have been excellent so far this year - almost every trip is seeing several, some great porpoise and dolphin sightings and the first basking sharks of the season have been seen. However, the Orca have not yet made their usual May appearance - for two years in a row they have been sighted on May 15th, but not this year.

Our whale-watch partners have introduced a new boat for this season - a little larger and more comfortable than the previous one, with a great upper-deck viewing platform, as well as more inside seating and such extras as speakers throughout so the hydrophones can heard by all guests at the same time, fresh ground coffee, stabilisers and, coming soon, an LCD screen. The Mars bar is still there for the first to spot a minke whale - one of our clients was the lucky winner last weekend. ( Very time I see James I remind him that he still owes me a Mars from my first trip with them 3 years ago!)

On land our guides have been finding otters on just about every trip also - with one family being particularly amenable in turning up regularly. Although there was tragedy for one eagle pair- the TV stars at Loch Frissa lost both their chicks when their nest collapsed - there are still plenty of other white-tailed and golden eagles there.

This trip no time for me to go out wildlife watching myself - that will have to wait for later in the year. I am looking forward to it already!