Scottish tourism portal VisitScotland.com slashed its losses last year thanks to booming internet sales.

eTourism, the company which trades as Visitscotland.com and filed its annual results at Companies House last week, credited a 14% increase in sales to £3.8m during 2005 to the online business.

The number of people visiting the website leapt 64% by 4.1 million in the year to 10.5 million, as more and more consumers accessed tourist information and booked online.

VisitScotland.com said it had also benefited from the roll-out of its booking facility to cover the self catering market also, and the growth of its consultancy services also provided a boost.

An improved sales performance narrowed the site’s operating loses by 26% or £322,000 to £901,000, reducing the Government funding requirement of the business.

VisitScotland.com has set itself the target of achieving profitability in 2007.

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By Chris Druce

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