Here is what I sent.

Dear Messers Roughead and Colville, and Ms. Hill:

On Monday, January 29, 2007 three Guests of Scotland, two from England and one from the U.S.A., all wearing kilts, visited the Dumfries office of VisitScotland. One of them enquired of the man behind the counter, a Mr. Matthews, whether many people in Dumfries wore kilts. Mr. Matthews (who is alleged to be English) replied something to the effect that “The only kilts we see are on loud-mouthed Americans.” The three tourists were taken aback at the rudeness of the statement . Then Mr. Matthews went on to say, “There is, in fact, one loud-mouthed American living in Dumfries, who owns a guest house, struts around the town in his kilt and even does his shopping in it!” Mr. Matthews clearly was unaware that these three gentlemen were guests of the "loud-mouthed American".

Such an attitude from a representative for Scottish tourism can only be counterproductive to the objectives of your organization. Perhaps it is Mr. Matthews' English heritage that makes him so disparaging of both the Scottish National Attire and of the citizens of a country that pulled England's chestnuts out of the fire twice in the last century (current American politics notwithstanding). Surely this can't be representative of Scotland's well-known tradition of hospitality.


I am acquainted with said owner of the guest house, Mr. Robertson Wellen. You should know that Scotland has no greater advocate for tourism than he is. He has published thousands of pictures on the internet showing all of the aspects of Scotland that would encourage me to visit. I know for a fact that many of my acquaintances on this side of "the pond" have made trips to Scotland, and spent thousands of dollars in doing so, based primarily on information they have gained from this "loud-mouthed American".

I understand Mr. Wellen has requested a formal apology from your organization, and I strongly encourage you to do so. Any apology should include a statement of VisitScotland's position on the extent to which it values American tourism to Scotland. There are many of us over here planning (or planning to plan) a trip to Scotland, and VisitScotland is not the only way to go about it. Until such time as an apology is tendered to Mr. Wellen, with copies to the three guests, I think I can speak for many of us over here in saying that we will patronize other Scottish tourism promoters in preference to you. And there is always Ireland.


Sincerely

Wm. Turpin Ballard

Roswell Georgia, USA