ETAG: Inclusive Tourism Innovation Workshop

Posted on May 31, 2017February 2, 2023 by Fiona Campbell

Inclusive Tourism Innovation Workshop

Worth approximately £14 billion to the UK Economy, the Inclusive Tourism market is one you should know about.

This diverse market offers lots of opportunities to attract new visitors and to create long lasting loyal customers who will come back again and again to enjoy your offer.

Come along to learn more about Inclusive Tourism and how you can increase your share of the market. You’ll also have the chance to hear from Gillian Beaton at the Scotch Whisky Experience about what they’ve been up to to ensure their visitor experience is truly accessible and to attract a growing accessible tourism audience.

Objectives of the workshop:

To raise awareness of the Inclusive Tourism market opportunity
To help you consider product or service innovations which appeal to the market
To identify potential new collaborative opportunities
To launch the new ETAG Inclusive Tourism Business Opportunity Guide

What to expect on the day:

Hand’s on activities to help you develop and explore new inclusive products/experiences
Presentation on the Inclusive Tourism market opportunity
Case studies showing best practice examples
Creative techniques to help you develop opportunities for innovation and collaboration
Awareness raising of Edinburgh’s existing offering

Who should attend? Representatives of tourism businesses actively involved in developing and delivering tourism products and offerings. The programme will help you identify new ideas for products, explore them with other businesses and plan to implement them.

Book Now.

Supercontrol Increase in Annual Licence Fee

Posted on May 24, 2017February 2, 2023 by Fiona Campbell

SuperControl have increased their annual licence fee.

By way of clarity, SuperControl have issued the following explanation:

“The recent increase in our annual licence fee was to enable us to expand our team in order to maintain and build on the high level of service and product innovation that we constantly strive for.

In fact, we have already invested significantly in our infrastructure over the past two years (adding at least 30 new servers) with no price increase.

At the moment, we are working on:

Further database upgrades and additional capacity.
New infrastructure for improved logging.
A total restructure of pricing to massively improve performance at the same time as upgrading functionality.
A total revamp of our system security starting with card processing and improved PCI compliance.

We’re also working on a number of system upgrades that will improve SuperControl for our clients and their guests.

The following key development plans are currently under way:

Channel management improvements. We’re working to simplify the user interface to make it easier for clients to manage multiple channels.
New/improved channel integrations. At the moment, for example, we have active projects with HomeAway, Airbnb, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Premier Cottages.
Improvements to the checkout process. We are focusing on boosting conversion rates, cross-device compatibility and enabling much better website integrations.

This price increase is strategic to enable us to achieve all the above, and more.”

(This only applies to LITE and PLUS clients, not WBE.)

Submission to the Barclay Review

Posted on May 20, 2017June 5, 2017 by Fiona Campbell

The Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, alongside a number of key industry stakeholders, has responded to the call for evidence from the Barclay Review of Business Rates.

The Barclay Review was established by the Scottish Government in order to make recommendations to enhance and reform the business rate system in Scotland.

The ASSC, British Hospitality Association, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Rates Assessors and others provided a collective submission to the Barclay Review, highlighting 11 key points for action. Read the submission: Hospitality Valuations Working Group Meeting Actions.

In February, the ASSC reported that the self-catering industry had been hit by significant proposed rateable value increases – with a sector average of 65% – following the rates revaluation and called on the Scottish Government to introduce a transitional relief system until the conclusion of the Barclay Review. The following month, the Scottish Government announced that they would apply a 12.5% rate cap, a decision welcomed by the ASSC, with Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop MSP confirming that the cap would also apply to self-catering.

However, it is abundantly clear that the current system is no longer fit for purpose and that a long-term sustainable solution is required.

The Barclay Review is expected to report to Scottish Government Ministers in July 2017.