Bord failte makes the Scots green with envy

At the Open this year, played at Carnoustie in Scotland, the green at the first was surrounded by signs advertising a national tourism agency. It wasn't the Scottish Tourist Board, but Bord Failte. This instance highlights a concern that, as in so many others areas, Ireland is stealing a march on the Scots.

Industry in both countries is remarkably similar. Tourism nets the Scottish economy sterling £2.5 billion, while Ireland earns IR£3 billion. The English make up the largest single market for both, with North America the largest long-haul market.

Ireland is Scotland's fifth most important market, representing 9 per cent of all the overseas visitors who come to Scotland and sterling £64 million in annual revenue. 250,000 Scots visit Ireland, which is 6 per cent of the total coming from the UK and earns the Irish economy IR£45 million.

However there is great political concern in Scotland that Scottish Tourist Board is a moribund organisation short on ideas, while Bord Failte is better resourced and more dynamic. Certainly the successful way Ireland pursued the Ryder Cup for 2005 leaves many in Scotland envious.

Exact comparisons are misleading, in that Scotland has not enjoyed the kind of global marketing adopted by the Irish.

Both countries admit they target the south-east of England much more heavily then they do each other. This is for the prudent reason that there are a great many more wealthy people around London than in either Scotland or Ireland.

The two agencies have roughly similar budgets, with Bord Failte operating on £33 million a year to the Scottish Tourist Board's £21 million sterling. The STB also benefits from the marketing spend of the British Tourist Authority.

Tourism between the two is dependent on the transport links.

The increase in Scots going to Dublin is chiefly down to Ryanair, who opened their connection with Prestwick airport in the early 1990's. Until that time the only air route was that run by Aer Lingus from Glasgow and Edinburgh airports.

Ryanair's cheap rates overcame the relative problem of getting to Prestwick in Ayrshire, and came at the same time as Dublin was becoming the ideal location for a weekend break.

Dublin was soon to earn itself a reputation for the ideal location for the weekend binge, much loved by Scots. When Dublin clamped down on the stag parties, the liberal licensing hours of Edinburgh began to attract the same crowd. Where once the Friday Ryanair Flight was to be avoided for fear of a groom-to-be's vomit, now it is the east coast line trains coming into Waverley from London.

If you don't fly between the two countries, then that only leaves the ferries. The metal bucket that once plied between Stranraer and Larne is now thankfully gone, replaced by the new catamaran designs which are much faster. The vessels also now leave from Belfast as well as Larne - that cuts journey times further.

The problem for the ferry operators is that the roads either end slow both tourist and commercial traffic down. Despite local campaigning, there is still no move towards improving the road to Stranraer from Ayr, or the road from Carlisle to the port.

Periodic suggestions that a motorway be built on the old Stranraer/Carlisle rail line appear to have little chance of succeeding. However the main problem for Scotland's tourism industry is how get more tourists to the remote north and west without damaging the environment or reducing the local culture to a commercial gimmick.

The development of towns like Galway is seen as a model of how not to develop Scotland. The crucial question for the Scots is to how to protect the identity of each place and not let the whole country represent a single experience.

London is a significant factor for both tourism and transport development in Scotland and Ireland. On the tourism front, both try to develop strategies of getting tourists who fly into London to extend their stay and visit either Edinburgh or Dublin. The Scottish Tourist Board and Bord Failte have both signalled that joint initiatives could be possible in the future, in the way that Bord Failte now work with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

On the question of transport, access to the Channel Tunnel and the cross-channel ferries to the continent is limited by greater London's traffic density. The fact that the M25 is frequently bumper to bumper while there is no high-speed rail link to the Channel Tunnel further north than London mean Scotland and Ireland's development is to some degree on dependent on England's.