Everyone at McKinlay Kidd was delighted that we have reached the finalists shortlist for the 2009 Scottish Thistle Awards – the Scottish Tourism Oscars – for “Operator Programme of the Year”. (We were thrilled two years ago when we were not just finalists but won our category.) The judges comments are particularly glowing: ” (See [...]
A question often asked of me, so here is some photographic evidence. Not only did we enjoy some fabulous weather, but Heather and I also manage to find 20 dolphins, a deserted beach, a remote island (with its own bar) and great fresh seafood. Then on Monday, we took the ferry to the island of [...]
Probably the business person in travel I admire most is Noel Josephides, founder of the Sunvil travel group. He writes a regular article in Travel Bulletin, which is always worth a read. His most recent article compared various destinations in Europe and their relative appeal for repeat visits. His view was that, for example, Greece’s [...]
Just back from a couple of days in the Cairngorms, where we were testing a new holiday – our Highland Wildlife experience. We had pretty good weather for the time of year and although it still quite early for lots of wildlife, we enjoyed some fabulous badger watching in the evening hide, and then had [...]
The last few months have been incredibly busy, as we prepared the new holiday programme for 2009. We now offer more Scottish holiday ideas than ever, and more will be introduced over the next few weeks too. Then there was the design and development of the new design website, full of new features and with [...]
Although I am a car and motor-racing enthusiast – and have been lucky enough to drive nearly all the classic cars we offer for hire – I also really enjoy a kind of liberation when part of a holiday involves no car travel at all. This is a theme we will be developing further for [...]
The autumn is probably the season when I spend most time away from the office touring Scotland, visiting the hotels and other business partners to discuss the past year and plans for the future, checking out some new options and formulating plans for the next year. My first main trip this year was to Lewis, [...]
Regular readers of this blog will, perhaps, have been frustrated that it has not been updated recently. A wee systems issue prevented this for a while, but we are now back on track. Over the past few months I have been lucky enough to have been out and about quite a bit in various parts [...]
Our new brochure has arrived from the printer and will be mailed to our database over the next couple of weeks. Although we didn’t change the basic layout, we did make a large number of small changes to improve its usability. The main change was the front cover picture, as ever year. During our October [...]
My thoughts turned to Trip Advisor this week when they announced their TOP HOTELS list for 2007 and Scotland’s sole representation in any ratings was one Edinburgh B&B. That got me ranting – for a while anyway. I know we work with fantastic hotels offering great experiences and value for money – where were they? [...]
Robert Kidd is a founding director with his wife Heather McKinlay of the Scottish specialist travel company McKinlay Kidd.
I love Scotland, travelling in Scotland and am passionate about Scottish tourism (though I am Irish by birth). With this blog I plan to share with you some insight into the challenges and joys of running a travel business in Scotland. I hope to make it a good read, without giving away too many trade secrets or personal confidences.