Bed & Breakfast News Christmas 2016 (#43) | Page 14

14 | Bed & Breakfast News | Christmas 2016 The first ‘Guest Scotland’ show The first-ever ‘Guest Scotland’ B&B and self-catering show took place on 16 and 17 November at the conference centre of the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena (above), near Edinburgh airport. The show is run by events company Acumenedge, and the Bed & Breakfast Association arranged the conference sessions. The Scottish Minister of Tourism, Fiona Hyslop MSP (below with our CEO, David Weston), kindly accepted our invitation to open the show and officially launch the Scottish Bed & Breakfast Association (SBBA) - her speech is on page 16. Marc Crothall, CEO of the Scottish Tourism Alliance (the umbrella organization for Scottish tourism, of which the SBBA are members) spoke on ‘Change, Challenge and Opportunity - Tourism Scotland 2020’, about the STA’s strategy for supporting and growing the tourism sector in Scotland: “Tourism is acknowledged by the Scottish Government as being “Scotland’s most important industry”. “The role of the STA is to ‘lead on industry matters’, representing the views of our Members. We actively seek supportive change at policy level to enable our tourism industry to reach its growth ambition and perform as Scotland’s main economic driver. “Our mission is to help shape the right conditions for growth and profitability for the tourism sector and raise the profile and importance of tourism in Scotland. “As the voice of the tourism industry in Scotland, we represent the interests of more than 250 trade associations, businesses, destination groups and other organisations