about us

Gilbert Summers

Gilbert wrote his first main guide for VisitScotland a long time ago and refuses to be more specific. Suffice it to say that the national board came back time and time again over the years and Gilbert wrote on everything from practical information on tipping taxi drivers to the life of Mary, Queen of Scots.

As a copywriter, he is happy to write anonymously; in fact, he believes that self-effacement could be developed as an art form.

He has published books with the AA, HarperCollins, A & C Black and Simon & Schuster. He was the former Scottish editor for the New York based Fodor's Guides, where he once dealt with an editor who thought a sheep-dog was an animal with a woolly coat that barked. From that he first learned that no one in Scottish tourism should assume any potential visitor has any knowledge of Scotland whatsoever.

In his formative years in an east-coast fishing town, he first appreciated the creative stimulus of a slap in the face with a wet fish when he regularly walked into them, as his granny used to air dry cod on her washing line and visiting her house after dark was hazardous. (This is true, honestly, though only mentioned as a traditional Scottish experience.) Since that time, he has encountered fish several times in his career, including a spell as marketing manager at Edinburgh Zoo, where his office was in the old aquarium (rather damp and now demolished).

Later, he discovered the local council had built an aquarium near his doorstep. Unable to resist the siren call of the haddock, he managed this attraction through its opening phase and for the first few years of its existence. In spite of acquiring the name Macduff Marine Aquarium, probably the second-worst marketing name in the world (after Duff House, the excellent local art gallery), this fishy endeavour became the top new attraction in Scotland and the second-top in the UK out of the 56 paying attractions which opened in 1997, according to VisitBritain statistics. (Yes, that was a long sentence for a copywriter - but packed with information.)

In summary, Gilbert offers huge amounts of Scotland product knowledge and is known in the tourism industry for delivering accurate and well-researched Scottish material to the trade and to publishers. He also has practical experience of marketing visitor attractions.

Johanna Campbell

 

Growing up in Scotland 's capital with strong family connections in the West Highlands is a good base for a love and enthusiasm for your homeland. Thus Johanna did not follow her early interests in ancient Greek, old English and art but instead has made a career out of communicating about Scotland .

First after Glasgow University it was a summer job in the then Scottish Tourist Board's ( STB ) tourist information centre in London , England . There she spent hours explaining to visitors what Scotland had to offer - despite being asked, " do they speak English in Scotland?, I am told it takes 24 hours to get to Scotland and do I have to put my dogs into quarantine to visit the Isle of Skye? "

Then came a move back to Edinburgh to set up and run the Scottish Travel Centre in Edinburgh . Afterwards there was a spell as press officer at STB 's HQ. Part of her role was to read every paper published in the UK for any mention of Scottish tourism (this was before cuttings agencies!) - which meant black hands as well as an even better understanding of the industry as a whole.

High points were many - only hours after leaving the hustle and bustle of the city, to be walking out to the rock-stack of the Old Man of Hoy on Orkney's spectacular coastline; escorting the STB chairman on a fact-finding mission to the Western Isles, flying over southeast Scotland in a helicopter, or spending two days in Kinloch Castle on Rum. As for low points, uhmm..... probably an appearance as one of the Loch Ness Monster "legs" in an Edinburgh Festival cavalcade.

A year as one of the press officers for The National Trust for Scotland gave her a vital in depth knowledge of NTS properties plus enough committee meetings to last a lifetime.

Finally, armed with years of product knowledge of Scotland , Johanna went freelance. This knowledge was applied to researching and editing HarperCollins' Touring Guide to Scotland as well as checking and verifying many other guidebooks and touring maps.

Working in the background - though she has appeared on television in Taiwan (speaking Taiwanese in Glencoe!) and Germany (eating haggis and extolling its virtues) - her skills as an organiser of media trips and driver-guiding mean that plenty of journalists and TV crews simply get a better experience of Scotland.  It isn't glamorous but it's very grounded in practicality - and it involves going the extra mile.