The plunging pound and global downturn may have cast dark shadows over Scots' holiday plans, but like any cloud the economic gloom has its silver lining.
DAVID ROSS and CHRIS WATT
The plunging pound and global downturn may have cast dark shadows over Scots' holiday plans, but like any cloud the economic gloom has its silver lining - hotel owners around the country have reported a surge in confidence as bookings for early 2009 outstrip numbers in years gone by.
The drop in petrol prices, the Scottish Government's Year of Homecoming and the relatively cheap pound have combined to open a window of opportunity to Scotland's tourist industry for the year ahead, a survey has revealed.
And, if a campaign by tourism minister Jim Mather is successful, guest numbers could be swelled further as growing crowds of Scots choose to holiday at home.
The hopeful outlook was brought to light by an Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers survey, which showed that three-quarters of businesses questioned had enjoyed at least as many Christmas and New Year bookings as they did last year.
One confident hotelier is Lady Claire Macdonald, whose Kinloch Lodge Hotel on Skye already looks set for a good year in 2009.
She said: "All I have heard is gloom, but our take on it is quite different. We have good bookings dotted throughout the year, but it is always the immediate future that counts the most and the first quarter is extremely healthy. We weren't open at the start of 2008 because of work we were doing in the hotel, so we don't have an immediate comparison, but it is certainly better by far than the year before.
"It is not clear what the most important factor is, because we have a complete mixture from abroad and the UK. We had two rooms booked in August from America only last night and we are getting lots of people from the UK. We would like more from Europe, but I think that might come with the pound falling against the euro.
"I really think that for the hospitality industry in Scotland, 2009 is going to be very good. I am not an optimistic fool. I can't believe otherwise when our bookings are as good as they are. The day before yesterday we took 14 bookings in one day. So when I look at our reservations book, I can say we are in very optimistic mood."
Tony Story, managing director of the 83-bedroom Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness, was also looking forward to the year ahead.
Announcing a £10m redevelopment programme, he said: "We are not doing this because we believe tourism prospects are bleak, it's quite the reverse, and there is money behind that optimism. It is a good time to develop because you have contractors who are now far keener to tender, whereas before they had been perhaps spoilt for choice of contracts.
"This is all predicated on our belief that we will be getting increased business. As it is we get a lot of people from the US, and that business can only increase with the falling pound. The fall against the euro is even greater so we can look for an increase from the continent, but we think there will be an even bigger market from within the UK."
The central belt is also expected to see a surge in domestic tourism alongside boosted numbers of overseas visitors.
Earlier this week leading hotelier Robert Cook, chief executive of the One Devonshire Gardens, Hotel du Vin and the Malmaison chain, predicted a bumper year for the hospitality industry.
He said: "In Scotland, we are going to get a lot of European visitors because all of a sudden we are going to become affordable. We are going to have a lot of our own domestic trade - people aren't going to want to go Spain or Italy if they're not getting value for their pound."
Tourism minister Mr Mather said: "We have invited people around the world with an ancestral link or affinity for Scotland to come home and join in the Homecoming celebrations - but we also need everyone in Scotland to play their part, by having a holiday in this country."
Bono enjoys a Highland new year
Bono, lead singer of rock band U2, celebrated Hogmanay in the Highlands.
The Irish singer, wife Ali and Danish supermodel Helena Christensen, along with family and friends, flew into Scotland for a New Year break at Ben Alder Lodge, the 26,000-acre Inverness-shire estate owned by one of the world's richest men, Swiss financier Urs Schwarzenbach.
Bono's group arrived at Inverness Airport on Monday and were taken to the Dalwhinnie estate in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes minibus. The rock star, real name Paul Hewson, was seen wearing a red kilt with Miss Christensen in the bar at the Silverfjord Hotel in nearby Kingussie.
Gillian Welsh, owner of the hotel, said it had taken a few minutes to realise who the superstar guests were. She said: "We couldn't believe we had such famous people in the bar. But they chatted with some of the locals, while Bono enjoyed a couple of pints of Guinness."
