Cash-strapped tourism body loses chief executive

THE chief executive of Scottish tourism’s main industry body has quit after a cash crisis brought it to the brink of collapse.

Iain Herbert left the Scottish Tourism Forum, which represents hundreds of hoteliers, visitor attractions and associations, earlier this month after its board decided it could no longer afford to pay his £60,000 salary.

The membership organisation, which is independent of national marketing agency VisitScotland, plunged into crisis earlier this year when it emerged it had run up a deficit of £80,000 and was in danger of going into liquidation.

The body, which has been running for 13 years, is the main campaigning and lobby group for the £11 billion industry, with senior figures regularly meeting Scottish Government ministers and the heads of VisitScotland.

The forum organises Scottish Tourism Week, which was held for the sixth time earlier this year. Herbert insisted he had left “by mutual consent” as the group had simply been unable to afford to pay his salary, and blamed the loss of public grants and the impact of the recession for his departure.

The group’s chairman, Stephen Leckie, chief executive of the Crieff Hydro resort, said an urgent appeal to the forum’s 300 members had led to a cash injection of £40,000 to keep it going while a rescue plan is put in place.

A complete overhaul of the outfit, including a change of name, has now been ordered to ensure it had a “stable and sustainable future”.

Before taking up his post at the forum in 2007, Herbert was chief executive of Hadrian’s Wall Heritage, the body which manages the world heritage site in northern England. Before that he was head of visitor services of the National Museums for Scotland, general manager of the Falkirk Wheel and operations manager aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.

One source at the forum said: “There was a loss of £40,000 during the last financial year, but the overall deficit was about £80,000. Although the number of members was going up, some who paid higher fees had pulled out, and some projects which had public funding were wound up.

“The outgoings were much more than the income that was being generated. When it came down to it, there just wasn’t the funding in place to pay Iain Herbert’s salary and he was left with not much choice but to go.”

Leckie said: “I’ve only been the chairman since April and the scale of the financial problems were not clear to the board until then.

“The forum was in quite serious financial difficulty at the time and there was a danger that it might not have been able to continue unless action was taken. It was Iain’s decision himself to resign and we wish him very well in whatever he does. The harsh reality, though, is that this happened on his watch.”

Leckie added that the tourism industry remained united on the need to have a powerful voice and independent lobbying arm, completely driven by the private sector and not reliant on the public sector in any way.

“I think a new name, like the Scottish Tourism Alliance, would better reflect those aspirations.”