Scottish tourism was in focus last month as The Herald secured the first major interview with the new chief executive of VisitScotland and reflected on the outlook for this important industry.

Vicki Miller, who succeeded Malcolm Roughead in the top job at the agency on October 1, offered plenty of grounds for encouragement for the future as she commented on the publication of key data.

Ms Miller, who has worked for VisitScotland since 2005, declared the industry was reaping the benefits of sustained efforts to promote Scotland to international visitors which carried on during the pandemic even when global travel almost ground to a halt. Her comments followed the publication of figures in May, which showed the value of international tourists to Scotland had exceeded the worth of the domestic market for the first time in 2023.

Emphasising that Scotland’s success on the international front “did not happen by accident”, Ms Miller told The Herald: “We did not go quiet during Covid. We continued as an organisation to keep Scotland front of mind through all of our channels, and the relationships we have with travel and lifestyle media and travel intermediaries in our markets that we knew would be critical to selling Scotland when travel was able to begin again.”

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Scotland’s burgeoning appeal among foreign tourists was further underlined by figures published further to the interview. The latest Office for National Statistics figures for the International Passenger Survey, published in October, showed that a total of 1,975,000 visits were made to Scotland by overseas residents in the first six months of the year, up 14% on the same period of 2023 and a rise of 46% on 2019.

However, not everything on the tourism front is rosy. In one of my Business Voices columns, I wrote that the failure to get the basics right in certain areas is holding the sector back.

The piece noted that Scottish tourism’s prospects are being undermined by the ongoing woes of the ferry fleet, which through a combination of ageing vessels and the late delivery of new additions are causing people to think twice about travelling to the west coast.

It reflected the views of Isle of Arran hotelier owner Emily McIntosh, further to news of a further delay on the delivery of the Glen Sannox, one of two ferries ordered by the Scottish Government from Ferguson Marine to serve the Clyde and Hebrides network back in 2017 (it will not now come into service until the end of the year).

Ms McIntosh, who runs the Monamore Guest House in Lamlash, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “We need people to get people here so I can run my business. This has been the worst year on record for technical faults. When you live on an island, you have to expect some sort of ferry disruption that is weather related. It is particularly bad at the moment because of the ageing vessels in the fleet. This means more technical faults, but I think there has been some disruption every week that is technical and or weather-related.”

My Business Voices piece stated: “Without rehearsing the long-running political fall-out surrounding the Ferguson ferries debacle, it seems clear that the hopes and aspirations of Scottish tourism are being held back by the deficiencies of the ferry fleet. If tourists perceive there is a risk they may not reach their holiday destination, or will be delayed on their return because ferries will break down or are called to serve other routes, they will look elsewhere.

“Scotland may have plenty of tourist attractions and interesting and scenic places to visit, but in an intensely competitive global market it has to demonstrate its transport network is reliable as a minimum requirement.”

Meanwhile, one of the biggest names on the Scottish technology scene made headlines when he stood down as chief entrepreneurial adviser to the Scottish Government, citing the “draining effect” of right-wing attacks.

Mark Logan was a high-profile recruit by Kate Forbes, now Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, in 2020, when she hired the former Skyscanner executive to review Scotland’s technology ecosystem.

Mr Logan, who helped build Edinburgh-based Skyscanner into one of Scotland's first tech “unicorns”, authored the Scottish Technology System Review and worked with the Scottish Government on entrepreneurial policy.

However, he has faced scrutiny for the level of remuneration he received.

Mr Logan expressed satisfaction with the progress he made in post and said there were “no musical differences” with government ministers behind his decision to step down. But he said that, “although I am not in a political role, I am increasingly becoming a target for some in the right-wing of Scottish politics and their supporting publications, which, just as intended, has become draining”.

In financial services news, the new chief executive of abrdn, Jason Windsor, found himself facing a familiar battle to his predecessors as he unveiled the firm’s first trading update since he took on a permanent basis in September. Edinburgh-based abrdn reported further net outflows from its Investments arm in the first nine months of the year, albeit to a lesser extent compared with the same period last year, and highlighted ongoing challenges at its Adviser business, which provides products to independent financial advisors.

However, total assets under management and administration across abrdn edged up 2% to £506.7bn, helped by the growth of the firm’s interactive investor (ii) platform which continued to grow customer numbers and AUMA over the nine-month period. The ‘do-it-yourself’ investment business saw customer numbers increase by 6% to 430,000 in the year to date, with AUMA rising by 13% to £74.5bn.

Mr Windsor said: “We have plans in place to address our challenges and our transformation programme is on track. While there remains much to do, I am confident that we have great talent and we can make further progress towards profitable and sustainable long-term growth, benefiting our shareholders, clients, and colleagues.”