Visit Scotland To Scrap Website

Feb 24 2008 By Lynn Mcpherson

VISIT SCOTLAND is to close its tourism website after chalking up millions of pounds in losses.

Visitscotland.com, which was relaunched in 2003 with £7.4million of public and private cash, has never made a profit and last year lost £1.5m.

It will be replaced with a site featuring an online travel shop and visitor guide.

The controversial site came under fire from hoteliers and in 2000 the Sunday Mail revealed it secured just 30 bookings in one summer season despite promising more than four million when it was launched.

In 2004 we revealed how the company made a £2.3m loss the previous year after rows with B&B owners, who boycotted it as they did not want to pay commission.

From April 2 the new site will allow visitors to contact hotels directly, as well as buy travel tickets and packages.

Philip Riddle, chief executive of Visit Scotland, said: "Giving easy access to tourism businesses' own websites and contact details, as well as providing products to buy, gives them the choice they are looking for."