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Scottish Tourist Board not worried about travel boycott
Last week's controversial release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi from a Scottish prison has sparked calls for a travel boycott of Scotland. Al-Megrahi was convicted of involvement in the plot to blow up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. A total of 270 people died. He was given a life sentence but released on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya because he's dying of prostate cancer and has less than three months to live. Coming off the plane in Libya he was given a hero's welcome, with some in the crowd waving Scottish flags.Now websites are springing up like Boycott Scotland and there are online petitions, including a Scottish one, protesting the terrorist's release. The Scottish Tourist Board, however, doesn't appear worried. Americans made 340,000 trips to Scotland last year, spending £260 million, and officials have seen no sign of a significant numbers of people canceling their trips.
Al-Megrahi's release caused widespread condemnation in Scotland, the United States, and other countries. The Scottish parliament has been recalled for an emergency meeting as many ministers openly criticized the move and said the will of the Scottish people was not carried out.
I'm in England at the moment, and spent the last seven days on the border with Scotland, and everyone I've spoken to about this, English and Scottish, opposed his release. Will this move hurt Scottish tourism? Probably a bit. A few people will cancel trips, hurting the owners of hotels and B&Bs where they had reserved rooms, but the amount probably won't be enough to hurt the Scottish government, which was responsible for this decision.
Filed under: Europe, Libya, United Kingdom, News
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
phyllis Aug 26th 2009 2:21AM
I have been reading the scottish record, a large newspaper out of Glasgow I think. Interestingly, most of the comments seem to support the release, even though the terrorist (or are we calling such murderers militants still) has not expressed any remorse. And many Scoys don't seem to like us. I did not relaize we were so disliked in Scotland.
Sean McLachlan Aug 26th 2009 4:23PM
Interesting that you got such a different impression from a Scottish paper than I got being on the English/Scottish border. I'm not sure what to make of that other than neither of us got a huge sample of Scottish people. I don't think there's been any major polls on the issue.
Al-Megrahi hasn't expressed remorse because he claims he's innocent. He was about to appeal his prison sentence but gave up on the appeal since it turned out he was going to be released anyway. I think this is one of those news items where we'll never hear the full story.
Lynn Aug 27th 2009 1:57AM
I was recently in Edinburgh, Scotland and was attending the Military Tattoo on Monday night, August 17th. The announcer/emcee was chatting up the thousands of people in stands before the show started. He was asking for folks (from certain areas of the world) to clap when he announced their home country. He called out many of the larger countries' names and the crowd from those countries responded with clapping, yelling, whistling and the sort. When he called out United States, the BOOs were louder than the clapping, whistling and so on. No other country was boo'd. It was quite disappointing to hear that. I PERSONALLY never met with any negativity while there for 2 1/2 weeks but it ended a great trip on a bit of a sour note...
Sean McLachlan Aug 27th 2009 2:02AM
What a horribly rude thing to do, especially at such an event. They're forgetting all the times Scottish and American units fought side by side.
It annoys me when people can't differentiate between people and governments. If you don't like U.S. foreign policy (or Libyan foreign policy, for that matter) then that's fine, but judging people on the basis of their government is just stupid. Falling for stereotypes (fat ignorant Americans, fundamentalist Libyans) is equally ignorant.
Sorry you ended the trip with a disappointment.
Sean McLachlan Aug 30th 2009 3:16AM
The Guardian did a poll this week in which 60% of Scots said they disapproved of the terrorist's release. They didn't mention how many approved or had no opinion.