Demand for Scottish Tours Exceeds Supply
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IvOACH tours of Scotland from Editsburgh are more popular now than ever before, especially among visitors, but, because of catering difficulties and the limited provision of new vehicles, only 50 per cent, of the demand can be met.
Every day in Edinburgh and in branch offices and agencies throughout Britain, hundreds of inquiries are made about extended tours of the Highlands and day and afternoon tours of the Trossachs and the Borders and elsewhere, but bookings can be accepted only if there have been cancellations of previous reservations. Places can be reserved for only local trips of up to about three hours' duration, where no organized catering is involved.
Extended tours of the Highlands are fully booked up to the end of the season, whilst all seats on the day and afternoon trips for three or four weeks ahead have been taken. This position has existed since the middle of May.
Thousands of tourists are seeing Scotland each week by coach, and Mr. James Amos, director and traffic manager of the Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd., considers that the demand is unquestionably greater than before the war, although the number of passengers now carried is smaller.
He estimated that well over 2,000 visitors each week patronize the tours, and of these about 1,000 people travel on the day trips. Every day some 200 to 250 letters of inquiry arrive at the Princes Street office from all parts of the world, and a similar number is received from the London office.
Mr. Amos thought that if full facilities were available, the number of passengers carried on tours could be doubled every day without difficulty. He pointed out that many English visitors have foregone visits to Scotland because of the difficulty of securing reservations.
One conclusion drawn from the nationalities of visitors patronizing the tours is that the number of Americans has so far been below expectations. It is believed, however, that many of them have delayed their visits until the period of the International Festival of Music.
A limited number of visitors from Europe has arrived, but most of the tourists have been English. General impression is that service in hotels is satisfactory, and complaints have been rare.