THE LAST financial year will be remembered as the time VisitScotland started to become a “world-leading tourism network,” chairman Peter Lederer will tell an open meeting in Dundee today while launching the agency’s 2004-05 annual report.

Mr Lederer and VisitScotland’s chief executive Philip Riddle are launching the report at the Apex City Quay Hotel in front of tourism industry representatives and members of the public in a review of the agency’s operations, while also setting out leadership plans for the next 12 months.

In his statement in the report, Mr Lederer, the managing director of the Gleneagles Hotel and in his second term as VisitScotland chairman, pays tribute to tourism businesses throughout the country “for increasingly taking the bull by the horns, getting together for mutual benefit and coming up with new ideas.”

He highlights the success of the Scottish Village in New York during the week of Tartan Day, and the publicity generated by G8, the Open Championship at St Andrews and the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

“When we all work together everything becomes easier and better, and the Scottish Village (was) just one shining example of what we can achieve through partnership and collaboration,” he said.

The agency believes it has brought in over £40 million additional spend to the Scottish economy as the result of the Welcome To Our Life campaign which ran across Europe.

VisitScotland calculate that in 2004 they had a return on investment of £23 for every £1 spent by the agency, up from £13 in 2002.