VisitScotland’s iCentre in Inverness High Street has a closing date
The closure of the tourist information centre in Inverness High Street will go ahead in October 2025, VisitScotland has confirmed.
The national tourism organisation announced in March that its network of 25 iCentres, which provide tourist information and advice as well as local recommendations, would close over the next two years.
It says the demand for information centres has reduced while the demand for online information and booking has continued to grow.
But the announcement has provoked anger as well as concern about the impact in the Highlands and Islands where tourism is key to the economy.
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A VisitScotland spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Inverness iCentre will close on 7 October 2025 as part of the second phase of our iCentre closure programme.
“This date has been determined by several factors including staffing, resource to vacate premises, local arrangements, property commitments and stakeholder engagements.
“Our staff are our priority, and we are working closely with them to discuss their options, which include re-deployment in the organisation or voluntary redundancy.
“In line with policy, there are currently no compulsory redundancies.”
The spokesperson said the announcement in March to close the iCentre network followed a wider review of its information strategy.
“It looked at where VisitScotland should focus our expertise to grow the value of the visitor economy,” the spokesperson continued.
“After considering a wide range of research and insights which looked at how visitors plan and book their holidays, we found most visitors plan all aspects of their holiday before they leave home, gaining inspiration from online sources or tour operators and travel agents.
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“VisitScotland therefore has a much greater role to play in getting information to visitors at this earlier stage of their holiday planning. By doing this we can influence where, when and how long they visit.
“Our future provision will focus on developing the channels we already use to inspire visitors to plan and book their trips to Scotland.
“This includes our visitscotland.com website, working closely with travel trade, social media and PR activity.
“We will continue to support local tourism through our marketing, destination development, business advice, insights and events activity. “
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant has called for a halt of the closures of vital VisitScotland centres in the Highlands - 12 of the centres facing closure are in the Highlands and Islands region.
She said the demand for the iCentres did plummet during the pandemic as no-one was allowed to travel for recreational purposes but they have increased year on year since then with 1.37 million people visiting a centre in 2023.
