The G8 Summit

"THEY CAME, THEY SAW, THEY DID A LITTLE SHOPPING..."

A personal view by Douglas Ritchie

Well, that was the G8 Summit that was. A lot of men in suits. A lot of policemen. Fewer protesters than was probably feared. A wee bit of anarchist nonsense. Various well-meaning but ultimately meaningless gestures. Bush, Blair, Chirac, Putin and the other four (go on, name them all) huddled round lecterns while their wives did the tourist thing.

They came, they saw, they did a few photo-calls, they went away.

The Gleneagles G8 Summit was a somewhat surreal event that was overtaken by the tragedies in London, which, quite rightly, moved the focus of the world's media from Perthshire to the capital. The London bombings cut through the G8 hype and are what the summit will ultimately be most remembered for.

Despite the protestations of the world leaders and all the sympathetic and supportive comments from the likes of Bob Geldof and Bono, for most people the Gleneagles G8 was a damp squib in terms of achievements and outputs. Anyone expecting a modicum of common sense or simple humanity on world poverty and climate change was sorely disappointed as everyone focussed on their national self-interest.

The endless parade of be-robed African leaders meeting local schoolchildren (and some desperate hanger-on called Jack McConnell) and the stories of Andrew Fairlie making Jacques Chirac eat his words about British food in an almost literal way generated as much coverage as any of the supposedly substantive pronouncements of the eight great world leaders.

And were the outcomes any more favourable or positive for businesses in Perthshire and the Perthshire economy?

The answer at this stage is that we simply don't know.

Sure, there were some nice panoramas of the Perthshire countryside broadcast and published around the world. Thankfully, most journalists acknowledged the area they were in and called it by its proper name rather than "The Highlands".

President Bush extolled the beauty of the area as he mowed down a policeman on his mountain bike. But it's questionable if we can really be proud of an endorsement from Dubya. Let's face it, this is the man who appointed the likes of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. That shows dodgy judgement. Would you buy a holiday destination from that man?

Local hotels and other businesses got a bit of a spin-off from the number of police, diplomats and protesters staying in the area, but most accommodation providers would have been pretty full in early July anyway and there must be concerns about the longer term impact on the loyal, regular visitors to Perthshire who were displaced by G8 circus. Will our loyal regulars return again next year or will they decide to stay away from an area that was happy to disregard them for a year in search of a quick, short-term buck?

There is certainly anecdotal evidence that many parts of Scotland experienced a down turn in tourism business during the time of the G8. This would suggest that some of the worries about tourists avoiding Scotland because they feared trouble and disruption during the summit were well-founded.

So, perhaps the immediate impacts of the Gleneagles G8 were possibly more negative than positive. This does not mean that the longer term impacts will continue to be negative, but we will have to work harder than ever to guarantee that Perthshire benefits in the long term.

My own personal view is that any tourism benefits that this area derives from the G8 are more likely to be in the area of leisure tourism rather than business tourism.

Business tourism was worth £960 million to the Scottish economy in 2003 when 3 million business tourism trips were made in Scotland. That's an impressive figure. However, it was down on 2002 when the Scottish business tourism market was worth £1,026 million. It still remains to be seen if we can build a pattern of sustained growth in business tourism in Scotland in the years ahead.

In Perthshire, business tourism was worth almost £30 million in 2003 and Gleneagles is well established as one of Scotland's premier business tourism venues. Many major events and meetings have been held there.

However, at best the G8 possibly reinforced Gleneagles' credentials as a major international player in business tourism. It remains to be seen if the summit generates any additional business tourism custom to what is already a well-known, well-recognised and well-appreciated venue.