We can find no evidence of any reputational impact to Scotland online as a result of the Scottish government’s decision to release Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
The mainstream media reported last week that businesses in Scotland were concerned about the impact of the decision on Scottish business particularly with the US.
We’ve looked hard and believe that claims of a boycott have been largely exaggerated. Its a good old fashioned PR stunt to drive interest in Scottish products.
But results from Google Insights for Search do show that searches around keywords relating to Scottish products are cyclically focussed around Summer and Christmas and that search volumes have been in decline since 2006.
Search term: “scotch”
Search term: “Scottish shortbread”
Search term: “Visit Scotland”
Search term: “Scottish tartan”
Drill further into Google Insights and you’ll find, for example, with the term “visit Scotland” that the United Kingdom tops the list for location of searchers. And within the United Kingdom? Er, Scotland. Seems Scots in Scotland are the most likely to be looking for info on visiting Scotland.
Ireland comes in at number two, with Sweden, Norway, Belgium following on behind. Searchers from the USA are non-existent. In which case, all the concern about impact on interest on US visitors is a red herring if this is anything to go by. Seems potential visitors from the US haven’t been interested in the term “visit scotland” for years. Or indeed ever.
That’s not to say they might not use other terms to find info about visiting Scotland. But you’d have thought “visit Scotland” might just be one.
how about a chart for Scottish football; that should show an even greater decline
So, we’ve worked out between us in 30 minutes that this story is nonsense. Google News is has recorded at least 100 articles in the mainstream media in the last week or so reporting the boycott fear as fact.