Chamber and committees

The recent performance of the Scottish team in Melbourne indicates that it was the best prepared team ever totake part in a Commonwealth Games. Scottish athletes can and already do competewith and beat the best in the world whether they are representing Scotland or Great Britain.They do not need a Scottish Olympic team to be in a position to do so.

We are currently consideringwhat further investment is needed to support our talented and emerging athletesto fulfil their potential and be part of future GB Olympic and Paralympic teams.We also welcome the Chancellor’s announcement in the recent Budget of additionalfunding for UK Sport’s World Class Performance Programme which will benefit thoseScottish athletes selected for GB/UK squads in the relevant sports.

No.

The Scottish Executive’s RouteDevelopment Fund has been designed to work with the aviation market to bring forwarddirect air services where it can be demonstrated that services should be able tooperate on a long-term sustainable basis. We have examined the possibility of adirect Australian service and concluded that the underlying demand is not sufficientto compete with the range and frequency of services available from the hub airportsat this time. We are, however, continuing to work to increase the range and choiceof services from Scotland which will connect to Australia.

The number of people whovisited Scotland from Australia in each year since 1999 is shown in the followingtable:

Year	Visitors (000)
1999	112
2000	98
2001	86
2002	100
2003	107
2004	119

Source: InternationalPassenger Survey.

The estimated number ofvisitors for 2005 is not available yet.

The Executive’s current activitiesto promote Fresh Talent overseas do not include attendance at any careers eventsin Australia.

However, we are working closelywith partners, such as the FCO, the British Council and Scottish Development International(SDI), to look for opportunities to promote Fresh Talent overseas. For example,the opening of an SDI office in Australia could result in new opportunities for the Executive towork closely with SDI to promote Fresh Talent in Australia.

VisitBritain is the leadagency in the delivery of the Scotland brand in new and emerging markets. VisitScotlandworks in partnership with VisitBritain to market Scotland in Australia asa great visitor destination, with Scotland a key element of the Britain brand.

There are currently nodirect flights from Australia to Scotland, although there are a number of indirect flights to Scotland connectingwithin the UK and elsewhere. The number of visitors to Scotlandfrom Australia who travelled by air to the United Kingdomsince 1997 is shown in the following table:

Year	Visitors (‘000)
1997	124
1998	82
1999	86
2000	76
2001	67
2002	77
2003	77
2004	93

Source: InternationalPassenger Survey.

The estimated number ofvisitors for 2005 is not available yet.

A number of visitors to Scotlandfrom Australia also enter the UK by sea or tunnel.

The boundaries of Scotland arewell recognised. They are not therefore set out in the Scotland Act 1998although section 126 of the Act makes clear that “Scotland”includes so much of the internal waters and territorial sea of the United Kingdomas are adjacent to Scotland.

The marketing of Scotland in Australia ismanaged by five members of the VisitScotland North America, Asia, andPacific team, who are based in VisitScotland’s Headquarters in Edinburgh.The VisitScotland staff work in partnership with VisitBritain staff based in Sydney tomarket Scotland as a great place for Australians to visit.