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After a weekend visit to the Black Isle, I can report the number of visitors at Rothiemurchus near Aviemore, and the length of the hold-ups at A9 roadworks, hint at something going not too badly for Highland tourism.

At the cheaper/value end of the industry, anecdotal evidence suggests order books are looking quite peachy, from bed and breakfast and youth hostels to the Cream o'Galloway visitor centre in the far south-west.

The weakening of sterling since last tourist season has made the 'product' more attractive to those earning foreign currencies, while those of us who earn in sterling find eurozone prices are a strong incentive to stay close to home.

But look at the latest Purchasing Managers Index for Scotland, which is published by its Royal Bank of Scotland sponsors, and you find it is 'travel, tourism and leisure' (let's call it TTL) that is getting hardest hit of any within the service sector.

It found last month that TTL recorded the steepest decline in activity within the service sector, and by a wide margin: the steepest contraction in new business: the volume of outstanding business contracted at the strongest pace there: for the sixth consecutive month, the steepest rate of staff shedding was recorded in TTL: and input costs rose "at a considerable rate", while the fall in demand drove down the prices being charged.

So is my anecdotal evidence plain wrong?

It's more likely it's because this is a big sector, Scotland's biggest export-earner and biggest employer, covering much more than lifestyle businesses around the Highland honeypots.

It may be because leisure is seen as a discretionary spend. There is plenty of evidence that people are eating out less.

The VisitScotland reckoning on numbers visiting major attractions, as published last Friday, are depressed in most categories, other than green tourism and places of worship (draw your own conclusions from the latter).

The parts of the industry dependent on people flying out of Scotland - such as travel agents, airports and airlines - are clearly having a tough time.

We've got new figures due out this morning on passenger numbers using BAA's Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports in April, after significant falls in the previous months.

It's also because much of the industry has been feeding off business travel, and of course, that's one place that recession-hunkering finance directors are cutting a swathe.

Those five-star team-building exercises for bank staff don't seem to be quite so common. The conference business has taken a tumble. Hospitality budgets ain't what they were.

Just ask those whose Six Nations rugby-watching was at the RBS's considerable expense ... until this year.