It is claimed millions of AOL users have problem with the site

The problem came to light as the website's performance was the subject of a parliamentary debate.

The site is hard to navigate for millions of worldwide users of the popular AOL service.

Officials accepted a problem exists but denied millions of users were affected.

VisitScotland charges a booking fee from accommodation providers for every booking made through its website.

In a statement it said that during its first year of operation in 2003 it generated �7.5m of business for the tourism industry.

If somebody from AOL wants to get onto visitscotland.com they have to jump through several hoops to do so Nora Radcliffe LibDem MSP

The body also said that more than 99% of customers surveyed rated their service as good, very good, or excellent.

But a motion before Wednesday afternoon's members' business debate at Holyrood sought to air the criticisms of the tourism website.

Liberal Democrat MSP Nora Radcliffe, the member for Gordon, claims there is a lack of reliable information and technical problems.

She said that problems faced by users of AOL are the most serious concern.

"If somebody from AOL wants to get onto visitscotland.com they have to jump through several hoops to do so," she said.

Work 'under way'

"Now that is excluding 17 million US potential customers, that's excluding two million UK potential customers, we just can't afford to lose that kind of market."

VisitScotland said it was working to resolve a continuing problem with its website and AOL, but that it may take some time.

But Mike Simons from computing newspaper Computer Weekly said that almost six months after the latest version of AOL was released he was astonished VisitScotland had not dealt with the problem.

"I think that's up to VisitScotland to sort out, they can do it in conjunction with AOL and ask them the best technical means," said Mr Simons.

"If you've got a site like VisitScotland which is trying to appeal to visitors from the United States, then I suggest it behoves them to make it accessible to people using one of the biggest internet service providers in the world."

VisitScotland said it is helping business

Maureen Lussey, who runs an online guide to Scotland, disputed VisitScotland's figures.

She said: "They say their website generated �7.5m for the industry. It would be worth knowing what they base that on and more interesting still to know the costs to Scotland and to the tourist businesses involved of generating that much income.

"Their claim of 99% of customers surveyed giving responses of good, very good, or excellent seems to beg many questions. Who was surveyed and in what context? Who do they view as their "customers"? How big was the sample? I ask because in reading that statistic I can almost hear the collective intake of disbelieving breath across Scotland.

"More widely, it would be well worth knowing how many distinct visitors their website received in 2003, and again, what the total cost of developing and maintaining their website was per distinct visitor."

'Losing business'

Shena McGhie, who runs a five-star B&B business in Aberdeenshire, said she had experienced many problems with VisitScotland's website.

She said the way it is laid out makes it difficult for people to find detailed information about tourist accommodation.

"I've found that my bookings that would normally have come through the national website have gone down," she said.

"I personally have not had any bookings through visitscotland.com at all since they started.

"I think that, at the end of the day, all of us are losing business and the country is losing a lot of money that it could be earning through more people coming to Scotland."