More than just a pretty face

to Glasgow.

The vision is one man's. But having laboured for the past week at the Arabian Travel Market, Colin Howie knows better than most Scots that

the streets are also strewn with

barricades. They have been erected, he believes, by our own hands - in part, ironically, by the bureaucracies, such as the Scottish Tourist Board, built up to tear them down.

The last official statistics show that 340,000 Arabs visited the UK in 1996 and spent more than #460m. Scotland's percentage is so small it is not recorded.

Last week at the Arabian Travel Market, the Mid East's foremost travel and tourism exhibition, deals were struck that will eventually translate into tourism spending of more than #150m.

There were some 500 exhibitors from 41 countries, representing all the continents except Antarctica. As the flags of many nations tried to raise a flutter in the 90(degrees)F heat

outside the World Trade Centre, Howie, 50, was alone in flying the saltire for Scotland.

His company is, somewhat ironically, called Surprising Scotland and Howie continues to live up to its name - surprised and dismayed that the Mid East hardly figures in the STB's dictionary.

Resplendent in tartan tie and kilt he cuts a dashing figure in his little patch that is forever Scotland on the British Tourist Authority stand. He says: ''Arabs are the wealthiest tourists in the world. They are non-weather sensitive and speak English.

''Scotland is an ideal destination for them if only they did but know it, because it is the absolute contrast to what they are escaping back home - temperatures in the high nineties. They are looking for good scenery and weather which suits them - rain if possible. They would love the long, light evenings when they can smoke their hubble-bubble pipes until 11 or 12 o'clock at night.

''As a bonus, the ones that have come over suddenly found that Marks & Spencer has four stores in Glasgow - it's the icing on the cake for them, they are shopaholics. I did one tax reclaim form for a family who spent #2000 in one day. By my calculation M & S would have made #800, whereas after I have sent my multiple faxes to the Gulf persuading them to come I am left with #80 or #90 profit. So I will always be a minor beneficiary of the work I do.''

Howie has been left to fly the flag on his own. ''The STB has its primary, secondary, and tertiary markets, and this particular market, despite my protestations, doesn't exist. They don't object to giving me brochures but 'don't have the resources to help me further'.

''I don't think the STB has any real interest in the Mid East. The Mid East is written off as a market that doesn't affect Scotland. I'd like to prove otherwise. Just because the perception is that a thing should be left to die quietly doesn't mean that you should follow it.''

Howie says that Glasgow is a fabulous shopping city for Arabs. ''The new Buchanan Galleries is an exciting prospect, but I don't think anybody has bothered to tell this market.

''I'm very keen to work with the Glasgow tourist board. Eddie Friel has a very refreshing attitude to tourism. I've mentioned to him that if we can persuade them to have self-catering apartments near the Galleries or even on top of them, then this would be a wonderful combination which is bound to pay dividends.

''If they have confidence that the Galleries are going to become the second shopping centre in Britain, then they have to look beyond that with some lateral thinking.''

Howie could literally be just a voice in the wilderness of sand that surrounds Dubai. But over the course of the exhibition, people and events tell a tale of a man who has struck gold, but is struggling to mine it.

Before the show had even opened, a bolt of tartan cloth to festoon the stand was stolen - in a place that prides itself on honesty, and when all else fails, heavy security. It is open to only one interpretation: Scotland is a show stealer.

On the first morning, Howie is greeted warmly by the Crown

Prince of Dubai, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the UAE Defence Minister and Tourist Board Chairman.

He remembers Howie from years gone by and makes a beeline straight for him. He tells Howie: ''If my countrymen knew what a beautiful place Scotland is they would all come.'' He is the Big Man in Dubai and this is just not idle small talk. The story is told again by Mazen Ghazi, assistant vice president of one of the biggest tourism agencies in Kuwait.

He knows Howie from the 10 years he spent in Kuwait working in the travel trade.

They make a great double act. Ghazi asks if Howie is wearing anything under his kilt. ''The way to tell, Mazen, is to look at a Scotsman's shoes. If there's dandruff on them then he's not wearing anything.''

Ghazi cracks up and spends a good part of the exhibition repeating the joke to Arab colleagues. As Howie flies the flag, Ghazi has been recruited as pennant bearer.

But there is a serious side. His company was the first to advertise Scotland in Kuwait. He has a strong affinity with Scotland, and has watched with dismay how Kuwait sold 80,000 holidays to Austria last year. ''Yet Scotland is Austria with a language Arabs can speak. Kuwaitis have the highest spend of any tourists in the world. On average they will spend between #4000 and #5000 while on holiday,'' Ghazi says.

The refrain is taken up by Howie. ''There is no cultural reason, tradition of tourism to Austria, no language reason that Arabs should go to Austria, apart from the fact that they have sold it bloody well.''

Ghazi adds: ''If the STB was active in Kuwait it would make a huge difference. Lots of advertising, a real Scottish night, a direct flight from London Airways - sorry I meant British Airways to Scotland - that would swing it.''

He also agrees with Howie on shopping. ''People must be made aware that Scotland is as good for shopping as London. That's up to the travel agents, but we must be supported by good publicity and brochures from tourist boards.''

A similar story is told by Prakash Balraj, another senior tourism sales executive from Kuwait.

He says: ''I sent a Kuwaiti family, three adults and four children, last summer to Scotland. They had been all over Europe before. We gave them Colin's brochure and told them it's a new destination untouched by the Middle East. We pointed them to Edinburgh, Aviemore, and Glasgow for the shopping.

''The combination was ideal for a family looking to relax and shop. They had a great time and are still talking about it. They were in Scotland for three weeks and would have spent #10,000 easily.

''I don't think I would have sent them to Scotland without Colin. There is a lack of publicity about the country. With more marketing we could sell more holidays. Very few people know what Scotland is about and that includes the travel agents.''

Howie's stand is part of the British Tourist Authority

set-up. But the BTA is a thin disguise for London Tourist Authority. Stands advertise London bus tours, chauffeur-driven London, and luxury apartments. There is even one woman, Eva Tymowski, who is half-Polish half-French, selling language and football courses in London.

Sitting from her vantage point even she thinks Scotland should be more pro-active.

The BTA man in Dubai, Adrian Bevan, takes the criticism on his public schoolboy chin. Bevan, who is Welsh - there are just a handful of brochures advertising his homeland - says he would love to see more Scots, but pleads limited resources in a market that has traditionally been dominated by London.

How long Howie and his Paisley-based company can go on chasing his dream in the city of gold remains to be seen. June, when his bookings start to come in, could be a wake-up call. He says: ''I have spent three years and invested #40,000 on this. But it's make or break time. The potential is waiting just round the corner. I suppose the road to hell is paved with good intentions and good ideas, and I would not be unique if I went down. I have no intention of not realising the potential of this place. But I need help.''

It would be the biggest surprise of all if he did not get it.