Scotland Workers
ETOA monitoring Scotland boycott threat
The European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) is closely monitoring the Boycott Scotland campaign by protesters in the USA angered by the release of the Libyan Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie. The website BoycottScotland.com is an anonymous Internet protest calling upon Americans to avoid Scotland and Scottish products in protest at al-Megrahi’s release.
VisitScotland, the Scottish national tourist board, has received emails from a small number of people cancelling their trips to Scotland since this news, but apart from this they say it is "business as usual."
“We understand that feelings are running high. However, the strong and enduring relationship between Scotland and the US will continue, as will the friendship between the American and Scottish people. Our priority is ensuring that American visitors and tourists are extended a very warm welcome to Scotland,” said Kerry Thomson, VisitScotland spokeswoman.
The USA is Scotland’s biggest overseas market and 2009 is an important year for inbound tourism. ‘Homecoming Scotland’ 2009 is an ongoing cultural events program celebrating Scotland’s contribution to world culture and heritage. “We are not running a new campaign to respond to the Boycott Scotland web site, but of course if the situation changes we will be ready to respond.”
The anonymous Internet protest is receiving wide publicity in the US media, including the New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN and Forbes magazine, and is growing in its scope, to include calls for a boycott of the whole United Kingdom and British products and services including banking and BP oil. The boycott has the tacit support of Andrew Lanza, Republican Senator for Staten Island in New York. Senator Lanza suggested that Americans “exert economic pressure on Scotland to express dissatisfaction with their dangerous decision.”
The website appears to have been organized for personal reasons by a group of friends and relatives of victims of the Lockerbie bombing. “Americans need to respond to this outrageous miscarriage of justice and betrayal of the victims' families, who were mostly fellow Americans, by refusing to spend their tourist dollars in Scotland and avoiding any kind of business there. Boycotting is the only way to send a clear and direct message to both the Scottish and British governments that Americans will not tolerate such a flagrant betrayal.”
According to VisitScotland, visitors from the US accounted for 340,000 trips to Scotland in 2008 and spent £260 million (US$429 million) in the country, or about 21% of spending by people from outside the UK.
Adam Buckmaster of ETOA said, “While we recognize that this is a highly sensitive issue, we would advise against any tourism boycott of Scotland. This would threaten the livelihoods of many hard-working Scots at this time of economic uncertainty. Scotland is a spectacular destination with a rich culture and history; it has always been a popular destination among American tourists and we encourage them to keep visiting.”
Source: ETOA Briefing
Comments
To Former Anglophile, you say in your post " But as the days passed and comments from "average" Scots posting on sites all across the internet became increasingly obnoxious and virulently anti-American, I changed my mind." I agree with what you say but have you looked at some the posts made by Americans towards Scots, I would say they are equally as obnoxious and anti Scottish. I would say that I am a Scot and I'm proud to be one and I did not agree with the decision to let Megrahi go home to Libya, that was a decision made by an idiot within an idiotic minority government who I DID NOT vote for. If some U.S. citizens want to boycott Scottish goods that is that persons right just as it is the right of a Scot to boycott American goods. I have respect for the American people and sympathise with the families, I am NOT anti America, I never have been and I wish all this arguing would stop, I love America and the American people, not all but then there are Scots I don't like either, and I will go back and visit America next June, what kind of welcome I get is anybodies guess but that won't deter me from going. I wish all the idiots on both sides who leave each other vile messages on the internet would give it a rest and grow up.
This matter seems to have got out of hand.
The comments from both sides reflects what one would expect from a school playground. If the citizens of the USA want to boycott Scotland and their products that is their privilege. Likewise, I had been planning to holiday in Texas and the South West but have cancelled this as no doubt I would have been shot by some lunatic with a gun.
The American reaction does seem to be a little one-sided. When America actively supported the IRA randomly bombing and killing innocent people in the UK, we did not ask for a boycott of American goods.
The IRA were actively supported tacitly by your government refusing to stop fund collecting or the extradition of known murderers.
When you decided to invade Iraq, our troops, as part of the British Army were involved and in Afghanistan, we again are involved. Our system of law permits the compassionate release of prisoners. Your system is based on punishment only. A poll of the people of Lockerbie, (where several Scots were killed), agreed with the release. I presume that the compassion and help given to Americans who came over to collect the bodies of their relatives now counts for nothing. The man is dying. What difference does it make where he dies
I presume that, when trade starts with Libya, the USA will be in there bidding for contracts. Hypocracy also flourishes on your side. If you wish to cut off all trade and cultural contacts with us, yes, it will hurt, but we will survive. We will just have to turn East into Europe and cultivate new friends and trading partners such as Russia and China.
When the news first broke I thought it would be silly to boycott the people of Scotland for something their government did. But as the days passed and comments from "average" Scots posting on sites all across the internet became increasingly obnoxious and virulently anti-American, I changed my mind. It's one thing to dislike the actions of a particular government, it's quite another to blame every American citizen for its actions and accuse them of being everything but a child of God.
While there is no organized movement to boycott Scotland growing, there is a discernible dislike of the Scottish people on the rise. Similar feelings to those Americans have had for the French since De Gaulle are being privately expressed. Mostly along the lines of, "If this is how they really feel about Americans, then they can live without feeling my American dollars in their pockets!"
Sadly, for Scotland, this dislike/distrust/distaste is probably permanent for anyone who has experienced one of these anti-American verbal assaults. That means a disorganized boycott by individuals which will probably last for the rest of their lives.
For the most part, it won't be as obvious as canceling trips already booked. It will be a lifelong aversion to anything Made In Scotland - especially the natives.
stoooopid --- now I finally get what my English coworkers have been saying about the Scots for years. YES -- the point of a boycott is to "threaten the livelihood" of people living in Scotland. Americans are canceling their vacations but I'm sure your new Libyan friends will be happy to come.
"Adam Buckmaster of ETOA said, “While we recognize that this is a highly sensitive issue, we would advise against any tourism boycott of Scotland. This would threaten the livelihoods of many hard-working Scots at this time of economic uncertainty."
Ahh, I believe that's the POINT?
Dufuss...
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