SCOTTISH tourism businesses were today told they need to boost the standard of their service to ensure a healthy future for the industry.

They were encouraged to adopt "world-class" standards in order to attract more wealthy tourists to Scotland.

And industry bosses stressed that tourism operators can cash in by expecting a 10% boost in their profits if they take the message on board.

Apart from increasing profitability, improving service standards also results in a marked drop in customer complaints and a reduction in staff turnover levels.

More than 200 Scottish tourism businesses are at the annual Customer Service Conference, at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow today.

The aim of the Scottish Enterprise-organised event is to boost the overall economic performance of the tourism sector by improving service standards.

Tourism is worth £4.1billion to the Scottish economy and the industry employs over 200,000 people but the trade's leaders have a target to grow the sector by 50% over seven years.

One of the key aims is to increase the number of tourists, getting them to stay for longer in Scotland, and spend more money.

Delegates were told about the critical importance that maintaining consistently high service standards has in achieving those goals.

Speakers at the event include David Fairhurst, senior vice-president of McDonald's Restaurants.

The Customer Service Conference is part of an on-going Scottish Enterprise programme of events for businesses operating in Scotland's tourism industry.