Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, Rhoda Grant, says she is “astonished” at the complete lack of accountability from the Scottish Government over VisitScotland’s closure of its 25 iCentres throughout Scotland. This comes as Mrs Grant’s latest plea to the Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead, to step in and stop the closures while concerns of Unions and VisitScotland staff are fully addressed, has been rejected out of hand.
The MSP has been raising concerns with VisitScotland and with the Scottish Government since the closure programme was first announced at the end of March. 94% of VisitScotland’s core funding from 2024/25 comes from Scottish Government Grant in Aid and 6% comes from other sources, such as retail and commercial income.
The phased closure programme began in September with the Centre in Stornoway being one of the first to close the following month. The closure programme is due to end in March 2026 as VisitScotland claims that the demand for information centres has reduced while the demand for online information and booking has continued to grow. Twelve of the Centres facing closure are within the Highlands and Islands region.
Rhoda Grant 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 1.37million people visiting a centre in 2023.
“Indeed eight of the centres have increased sales from their pre-pandemic figure including four in the Highlands and Islands region – Craignure, Lerwick, Rothesay and Ullapool.”
In her latest plea for a moratorium on closures, Mrs Grant asked specific questions on redeployment opportunities within the organisation; the commitment to no compulsory redundancies which is only in place until March 2025; the quoted footfall numbers; the fact that no real work has been put into diversifying the operations of the iCentres to try and increase numbers and offer a more attractive visitor experience; whether staff from the Stornoway iCentre have been redeployed, on or off island, or if they have taken voluntary redundancy and what will happen to the issuing of Citylink bus tickets for onward travel from the Stornoway-Ullapool ferry now that the iCentre has closed.
She continued “I am astonished that having put very detailed questions to the Cabinet Secretary, his stark response addresses none of those concerns but instead bats the issue over to VisitScotland as an operational matter for them. The Scottish Government funds 94% of VisitScotland’s budget but that appears to be of no concern to the SNP Government.
“I say again, with depopulation being one of the biggest challenges facing Highland and Island communities it makes absolutely no sense to remove jobs and services from these areas.”
VisitScotland’s website has a section on Island Communities Impact Assessments and why they need to be carried out when decisions of this nature are taken. VisitScotland didn’t carry out Island Impact Assessments and instead carried out their own screening assessment. They claim the impact the closures will have on island areas won’t be significantly different to the impact they will have in mainland areas.
Mrs Grant said “This will have a far bigger impact in island communities and will only seek to add to the depopulation of our islands which depend on tourism for their survival.
“I am seeking a meeting with the new Chief Executive of VisitScotland to encourage her to freeze this decision while the concerns of staff, customers and Unions remain.”
The Freedom of Information response shows that in 2023 visitor numbers decreased in three centres which are understood to be operating on reduced opening hours (Aberfoyle, Aviemore and Oban) and a negligible reduction was recorded in the Dumfries and Pitlochry centres. However the total visitor numbers throughout the network have increased year on year since the pandemic:-
2019 – 2,004,516
2020 – 264,996
2021 – 511,292
2022 – 1,163,685
2023 – 1,370,060
Total staff numbers affected is unclear – VisitScotland advise that 90 individual staff members (as opposed to FTE) will be affected. Scottish Government says it’s around 130 staff.
The link to the Island Communities Impact Assessments can be accessed via the link:- Impact Assessments I VisitScotland.org