Interview Time
Sinead Guerin – Visit Scotland
Edinburgh was a recent stop on the St Christopher's tour so I took some time out to sit down with the lovely Sinead Guerin from Visit Scotland.
Which part of the city do you think appeals most to the backpacker demographic and why?
I think the Old Town because the buildings and the architecture are amazing. You can walk around and imagine what it was like in the mediaeval times. There's a lot of history too – for a while there was the plague back in the 1600s and the Old Town became a very smelly and nasty place to live. People left the old town, went onto new places and it became a bit dead, but nowadays there's a real vibrancy to it. There are lots of nice places to have coffee, attractions near the Cowgate, good clubs and it's all good value.
Where have you personally had the most fun as a traveller?
Dublin - because that's where I'm from. I've got a lot of friends there, there are some great places to go and it's where I'd go for a weekend break. More internationally I'd say Paris for the walks along the Seine, the beautiful buildings and the cafes. I think it's a very romantic city.
How did you get involved in your current line of work?
I've always been interested in the tourism industry and I started working for a consultancy firm that help to improve and develop businesses. Then I did an MBA after that, went travelling around the world and when I came back I fancied doing something different. I saw this advert – they needed someone to help develop a new tourist card for Edinburgh so I applied for that and got it. It was a massive project but I got stuck in and now we have this pass. I get a real buzz from it now. We sell it online and also in the tourism centres.
How could the backpackers help you in your job?
Well I'm always interested in feedback from customers who've used the pass. So they could log onto the website and let us know how much money they saved. Also if they find an attraction that they really love and want to see it in the pass, they can let us know.
Each month we have an article called the Top 5 Reads on the Road. What would you like to see included in this line up?
I'd definitely recommend the Edinburgh Rough Guide, Lonely Planet and Scotland the Best by Peter Irvine.
Where do you see Edinburgh five years from now – in terms of tourism and recreation? Are there any exciting new developments or predictions?
I think Edinburgh is going from strength to strength. There are some great opportunities, new hotels coming in, new restaurants and plans for a tram system. The ambition for tourism in Edinburgh and Scotland is to grow tourism revenues by 50% by 2015. The industry will work in partnership as one team to exceed visitor expectations. There are a number of exciting new hotel developments in the city which will increase the bed stock and assist us grow tourism capacity in Edinburgh.
In terms of doing Edinburgh on a shoestring, what resources could you recommend?
Watch this space - some work is currently being done on this at Visit Scotland. City based hostels will certainly be a feature in this.
Finally on a lighter note if you had the power to put a comedian in the position of Prime Minister, just for a day, who would it be and why?
It would be an Irish comedian called Dara O'Briain. He always makes you laugh, he's larger than life and I think he's great at improvising. He's just great.
