Scrap plans to axe Highland tourist information centres, MSP Rhoda Grant argues after figures show rising income and customer numbers

Axing of vital tourist information centres in the Highlands must stop, a local MSP has demanded after new figures showed that income and customer footfall at the sites is recovering post-pandemic.

VisitScotland came under fire in March after it announced plans for a phased closure of all 25 of its iCentre sites across Scotland - 12 of which are located within the Highlands and Islands in communities that include Inverness, Ullapool, Aviemore, Portree and Fort William.

It argued that the number of people using the physical sites was down from where things were prior to Covid-19. They said income at the locations was also lower and that more people than ever were looking for tourist information online.

But critics warned that tourists still made good use of physical locations for help getting around, and argued that closing sites was foolish. They also said the loss of the iCentres in rural and island communities would also badly hit areas where alternative jobs were less easy to come by.

And Highlands and Islands list MSP Rhoda Grant has now called for the decision to be reversed after new figures released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that footfall and income at most of the sites is continuing to rise. And, although it is still lower than pre-pandemic levels in many places, in some communities like Ullapool the number of tourists visiting is now almost the same as it was.

She met the Minister for Employment and Investment, Tom Arthur, on Wednesday, to discuss the concerns surrounding the closure programme, which is due to begin in September ad end in March 2026.

Speaking afterwards Ms Grant stressed that that while total visitor numbers to the network dropped during the pandemic, they have increased year on year since then with over 1.37million people visiting a centre in 2023.

The figures also showed that eight of the centres had increased sales from their pre-pandemic figure including four in the Highlands and Islands region – Ullapool, Craignure, Lerwick and Rothesay

She said “VisitScotland’s decision is based on people moving online to book holidays, but 1.37million visitors used the iCentres last year and sales have increased in some centres since pre-pandemic.

“I have no doubt many will have used digital sources to plan their holiday too but many clearly still felt the need to seek more information in person when they were in the country so there is a definite demand there.”

She continued “VisitScotland claim that most of the jobs will be retained through redeployment but where will island based staff be redeployed to?

“It’s not clear from the information provided by VisitScotland and the Scottish Government exactly how many staff will be affected by these closures, and what alternatives will be offered to island based staff.

“This will have a far bigger impact in island communities and will only seek to add to the depopulation of our islands. For an organisation that is almost entirely funded by the Scottish Government, one would have though that to disregard government policy on this is shoddy at best, arrogant and ignorant at worst.”

Meanwhile, she has also demanded to know why ways of measuring customer numbers have been altered.

Footfall had been collected at each location via either electronic or manual visitor count system. But since last November only manual trackers have been used.

The Minister with responsibility for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade, Richard Lochhead, is currently unavailable due to health reasons but he met with VisitScotland in March urging them to continue discussions with partner organisations and to listen to any concerns that communities and businesses may have.

Mrs Grant said “There’s been no prior engagement with MSPs on this. The concerns are being brought to us by constituents and by local newspapers representing the needs of their communities.”

“The tourism and hospitality sector has been one of the worst hit from the pandemic and we need to be bolstering these businesses at this time, not cutting services to the millions of people who visit Scotland annually. We must get this decision reversed.”

She added that during her meeting with Tom Arthur, the minister told her he would raise the concerns with VisitScotland and ask them to consider/reconsider the impact on islands in particular

Ms Grant also said the minister agreed to ask VisitScotland to provide her with more information and clarity around the reasons for the decision

They also agreed to follow up and meet her again if needed.

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