OPINION STEVE FINAN: Why new Dundee tourism plan won’t work.

It smells like it was cut-and-pasted from somewhere else, with references to Dundee shoehorned in.” The ambition to make Dundee “Europe’s best emerging city break destination” is admirable.

The problem is that the Dundee Tourism Action Plan 2025-2030 is little more than a collection of corporate speak, marketing jargon, and communication clichés. Its buzzwords, “disseminate insights on visitor profiles,” “facilitate collaboration opportunities,” and “optimise data collection,” may mislead some.

But it smells like it was ripped and pasted from somewhere else, with Dundee mentions tacked on. I’ve read the entire thing numerous times – 7,142 words over 36 pages – and it has one major flaw.

It lacks a central emphasis, a major notion. More reasons to visit Dundee are required to attract more visitors, as clear as the Law on the skyline.

To considerably increase visitor numbers, the current reasons to attend will be insufficient.

You need new ones. Remarkable attractions and unique experiences—things with a “wow factor” (to use the action plan’s terminology).

The concept offers lots of room for a bold idea. It begs for a huge concept. But it does not have one.

It’s an advertising approach that doesn’t know what it’s promoting. A plan to sell existing attractions more effectively does not compensate for a wow factor.

Did you notice that no councilman led it? Councillors frequently enjoy standing alongside a computer display depicting pretend tourists spending imaginary money at fictional tourist sites.

They smirk, simper, and claim it was entirely their idea. Their absence conveys a clear message: they do not believe in it either. Or they are too afraid to ask unpleasant questions such as how much this will cost and how it will be paid for?

How would you clean up the city centre, eliminate the thugs and beggars, and replace them with dynamic stores, pubs, and restaurants to maximise revenue from all of these tourists? I’ll put my neck on the line, however.

I never simply condemn in this column. I take satisfaction in being constructive, constantly presenting an alternative. A big concept should be on the site of the proposed Eden Project, but not the Eden Project itself.

Eden will open in ten years, after a generation has grown up in an environmentally conscious era.

By 2035, “green” will be part of everyday life. People will not travel to be told what they already know. Remember when Greenham Common ladies chained themselves to railings to demand nuclear disarmament?

Do you hear anything about anti-nuclear demonstrations these days, when we (perhaps) have never been closer to nuclear war? One day, wealthy students will throw paint to save the globe.

I am not arguing that environmental issues will no longer be significant; far from it. I simply point out that people’s concentration shifts.

What makes them want to visit a tourist destination will also change. The best attractions are innovative and/or distinctive. With £130 million (the Eden Project’s budget), other things could be accomplished.

A world-first artificial intelligence museum, a rollercoaster park, a football grounds museum, Scotland’s largest concert arena, and Europe’s tallest panorama observation platform. These are just my opinions; feel free to support or dismiss them if you have better ones.

At the very least, these are genuine ideas, as opposed to a tourism plan with no clear strategy for attracting more tourists.

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