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 – 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 ‚Äì whose focus is always on the Big numbers. I guess that‚Äôs 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 lets 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!

As a former Politics student I find elections fascinating and today’s elections in Scotland are of enormous importance. Polls show that the SNP (whose core objective is Scottish independence) have been consistently the most popular party for a number months now. The extremely balanced, mixed system of PR here will definitely mean no party will be able to form a government on its own, so the questions to be resolved are, who will be the main party in a coalition ( Labour or SNP) and which of the smaller parties (Lib Dems and Tories) will link with them. Could we see an SNP-led government, or perhaps the “unthinkable” Tory/Labour coalition? The Lib dems are much more likely to be “coalition friendly”, as they were in the last government. Then there will be the role of the third tier parties, from the Greens, to Scottish Socialists ( not forgetting the ever-colurful Tommy Sheridan and Solidarity). Together they may have enough votes to have a major influence, but will they actualy seek government positions?

As a business owner, as well as personal preferences, I also have to concern myself with the likely economic effect of the election, and I guess my main concern is what my customers and potential customers will think of an outcome which might mean an SNP led government. Will that be seen as anti-English for example - and 75% of my clients are English.

It has not been an easy voting decision for many people, and I know some will decide not to vote. I love elections, so I will definitely vote, but with less than unbridled enthusiasm for my choice. (A choice by the way which I am not going to reveal here.)

This morning I noted a poll in the Scotsman which reported that 83% of people thought Scotland would be a better place after today. I just hope the majority are right - buut as a student of politics I can confirm that majorities, especially in polls, are not always reliable in their judgement. Watch this space.

It’s great when a plan comes together. This month has been momentous for us in a number of ways. We have received more enquiries, more bookings and more website traffic than ever before in the¬†three and a half years we have been in business.

We featured in a wonderful article in Sainsbury’s magazine, on our wildlife holidays on Mull, which has provoked a great deal on interest. (We have also been mentioned in both the Guardian and Sunday Times recently.) This coincided very nicely with the launch of our newly revamped website. Add that to our other marketing activities and the results are clear to see.

We are also delighted to welcome a new member of the team on board - Julie Morris. Julie, who has plenty of experience in the fields of tourism, design and marketing, has already settled in well, but does need to be more careful in the number of chocolate biscuits she is bringing in for the office to share. Now we are on the first rather than fourth floor, running up the stairs is not an available exercise option to work them off!

Later next month we are planning to revisit Orkney - where Heather and I have enjoyed some memorable holidays in the past. We will be looking at a number of hotel possibilities and  hope to be able to offer a full programme of exciting holiday options there from April onwards.

We are also working on a couple of other major initiatives to introduce new services by early Summer - exciting times ahead, I hope.