VisitScotland can not rule out further closures of information centres

For decades they have enticed holidaymakers through the doors but a major shake-up of Highland tourist offices – and the threat of potential closures - is on the horizon.

Guesthouses, B&Bs and hotels have won lucrative trade through bookings made at busy tourist office counters over the years but budget cuts and the advent of new technology have placed a question mark over their future.

A paltry number of bookings are now made at traditional tourist offices, footfall has decreased and holidaymakers are far more likely to make their vacation arrangements online or through smart phone apps.

That has prompted calls for technology to be promoted more in visitor services instead, amid tightening public sector finances.

VisitScotland and Highland Council between them fund 14 tourist "information centres" in the region.

A £220,000 council grant to the national tourism agency, mainly to help fund tourist office costs, was approved by councillors yesterday, but it was 50 per cent less than five years ago as budget cuts have bitten.

Colin Simpson, the council’s tourism coordinator warned the planning, environment and development (PED) committee that the present tourist office network – which has cut opening hours to save cash in recent years – will "no longer be sustainable and in future more substantial change" is needed.

A joint major review of the network will be carried out by the council and VisitScotland with a "remodelled" set-up to be introduced for the 2015 season.

VisitScotland would not rule out shutting tourist offices and regional director Scott Armstrong said the funding reduction meant it had to find a variety of new ways to provide the high standard of tourist information expected.

"Consumer trends are changing, particularly with the emergence of mobile technology and the increase in internet use," he said.

"These changes, in some locations, have had an impact of footfall in our information centres. We place great value on our VisitScotland information centre network, but like all services, how and where this is presented will evolve over time.

"We look forward to working with Highland Council and other partners to ensure the best and most productive decisions are reached to benefit the region."

Councillor Thomas Prag, member of the Highland Area Tourism Partnership and the PED chairman, said a tourism service would be retained in communities, possibly through partnership with other organisation and businesses.

"We still need places where visitors can drop in and ask questions and talk to real people," he said.

"Some of them might change character, we might work with other organisations or businesses. It might change from a formal office and people behind a desk but the key thing is that we still know that it matters that local communities are visitor-friendly, but the things that the visitor now needs have changed," he said.

In 2011/12 only 9,167 bookings were made at 14 tourist offices, despite 834,100 people walking through their doors.

Inverness and Fort William are the only Highland tourist offices fully funded by VisitScotland which reflect their "strategic role" within Scotland.

The council and Visit Scotland pay for "regionally strategic" category two offices on a 50/50 basis in Aviemore, Portree, Thurso, Ullapool and Fort Augustus.

The costs of the remaining offices in the network, which play a predominately local role – including Drumnadrochit, Daviot Wood, Durness, Grantown, Lochinver, North Kessock and Strontian - are met by the council.

Visitor information is provided by a third party in conjunction with VisitScotland at another 16 locations like Eilean Donan Castle, John O’Groats, Kingussie, Bettyhil, Balluchulish and Nairn.

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