COLIN CAMPBELL: Surely tourists deserve one info centre in Highland capital
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The tourist season is rapidly approaching and yet again it will bring in a tidal wave of money to Inverness and the Highlands - hundreds of millions of pounds. And how hugely welcome that will be.
The dark days of Covid may seem only a distant memory now but those in the tourist industry will remember all too well how barren and empty Inverness felt three years ago when life was gradually returning to normal but few people had regained their taste for travel, and the normal mass influx of visitors was reduced to a hesitant trickle.
Everyone felt the pain. Hotels slashed room costs to a fraction of their normal level, restaurants were half empty, bars were sinking towards deeper losses, and shop owners felt every summer morning was like a dreich day in mid-January. The only salvation was that the tourist surge was on course to return, offering hope, money and survival.
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And so it has proved. But the Covid era provided vivid evidence of how vital the lifeblood of tourism is to so many businesses and thousands of jobs across this city and the entire Highland region.
But now comes the fresh prospect of a deliberate act of tourism self-harm which seems bafflingly devoid of all common sense.
Welcoming, friendly tourist information centres across Scotland are due to be axed.
The capital of the Highlands and the gateway to the Highlands is set to lose its cheerful High Street drop-in venue as part of a sweeping range of "cuts".
It's only seven years since the tourist centre was transferred from Castle Wynd to its current location to give it more prominence and accessibility. Back in 2017, that was a very positive move. It was also a gesture in tune with the welcoming spirit of tourism, promoting a prominent greeting and information place for every visitor who needed it.
And now, in 2024, it faces being closed and being replaced by the rather less welcoming exterior of an empty shop front.
What has changed?
Tourist bosses have decided that centres like the one in Inverness - and few in Scotland are as central and as prominent - are no longer needed because of the shift to holiday booking online and will be phased out.
But of course. To save a fraction of a pittance compared to the huge influx of tourism money, the claim that "everything's online now" is used as an excuse to obliterate all human contact. Even in the tourist industry, where good service and friendly service enabled by human contact is paramount to the industry's very existence.
It shouldn't even matter how many people use the centre or how busy it is at any time of day or year. It should still be there as a symbol of welcome. And it should be there if people need it.
Inverness provides free open air concerts, tourist trails, and even engraving on paving stones which is aimed at catching the eye of visitors, anything and everything to try and make their stay here more enjoyable and interesting. These efforts are imaginative and enterprising and are all greatly worthwhile.
Then along comes the dead-hand of anti-tourism bureaucracy with its thumping, clumping axe. There is still time to rethink this. But it would be a pitiful dereliction of duty if the capital of the Highlands could not offer even one central tourism venue with face-to-face guidance and advice for those visitors in need of it.
