Picture the scene.
A London office earlier this month. On the wall a TV screen plays a trailer for the upcoming film The Railway Man. At one point a steam train puffs across Glenfinnan Viaduct, a vision of Scotland at its most picturesque. In the London office the receptionist glances up and asks his Scottish visitor: "Is that a special effect?"
And perhaps it is. Perhaps we should start seeing the landscape of Scotland as our very own special effect, one crafted by nature rather than George Lucas's company, Industrial Light & Magic.
The news today that the most popular destinations for self-catering holidays and mini-breaks include Perthshire, Wester Ross and Argyll (not so far from Glenfinnan if you go to the top) suggest we've known that all along. Scotland's scenery is as much a draw as our culture and hospitality (and probably a bit more than the climate) for visitor and native alike.
Next year we will be looking to sport - with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles - to increase our visibility. These are opportunities that need to be exploited. But they are also one-off events. Glenfinnan Viaduct is forever.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
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