The closure of VisitScotland’s iCentres which provide valuable in person information to visitors was made with no Islands Impact Assessment conducted, as recommended by the Islands Act. The closure of all the centres throughout Scotland is based on data which VisitScotland has collected on the use of the centres – however, as a Freedom of Information request by The Orkney News discovered – the devil is very much in the detail, Closure of Kirkwall iCentre Reveals Weakness of Islands Act

The Orkney News report focussed on the closure of the busy Kirkwall iCentre. Shetland’s iCentre is to close this year.

Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, Rhoda Grant, met with the Minister for Employment and Investment, in the Scottish Government Tom Arthur, on Wednesday, 19th June, to discuss the concerns being raised around all the closures.

The phased closure programme is due to begin in September and will 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.

However a Freedom of Information request reveals 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. It also shows that 8 of the centres have increased sales from their pre-pandemic figure including four in the Highlands and Islands region – Craignure, Lerwick, Rothesay and Ullapool.

Rhoda Grant 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.”

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.

According to Malcolm Roughead, CEO of Visit Scotland, the closure of the iCentres will mean that VisitScotland “through a digital-first approach, using the channels we know visitors are using…can maximise our economic impact in all regions of Scotland.”

“We recognise the importance of community tourism and believe that visitors will continue to get information from locals – whether that be at the accommodation they’re staying at, in a local pub or when out and about at a local shop or visitor attraction. “

This view expressed by VisitScotland that visitors can just get the information they need by asking around was supported by the Minister, Tom Arthur.

Whilst that may happen, asking for information in a pub or a busy shop where other customers are waiting, is not as efficient or reliable than that provided by the knowledgeable staff in the iCentres. Looking at the figures below of those using the Kirkwall iCentre last year, it’s difficult to see how ‘asking around’ in a shop or a pub will work for 122,304 people – especially if there are a couple of cruise liners in on the same day.

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.

Rhoda Grant 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.”

Footfall had been collected at each location via the means of either electronic or manual visitor count system. Since November 2023 however, only manual trackers have been used to collate footfall. Rhoda Grant is questioning why the process was changed to solely manual trackers in November 2023.

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.

Rhoda Grant added:

“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 Minister advised Mrs Grant that he will:-

• raise concerns with VisitScotland and ask them to consider/reconsider the impact on islands in particular
• ask VisitScotland to provide her with more information and clarity around the reasons for the decision
• follow up with her and meet again if needed

Rhoda Grant concluded:

“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.”

Kirkwall iCentre is staffed by experienced islanders with local knowledge which is invaluable for tourists who, for example, want to know when they can cross to the tidal island of the Brough of Birsay. For locals it is also excellent for booking your travel needs if for instance you wish to take a bus from the Scrabster Ferry Terminal south – the staff will book all that for you, effortlessly and print out the booking.

The retail side of the centre is excellent for maps, local brochures, books, up to date information ‘What’s on’, and locally produced crafts, for visitors who do not have much time to spend in Orkney, this is a great place to shop.

The FOI acquired by Rhoda Grant MSP covering all the iCentres in Scotland, reveals a patchy picture, with some of the centres doing extremely well – and yet VisitScotland has ignored this, and decided to sweep away all of them.

The  annual footfall figures recorded for each iCentre for 2019 – 2023.

Some of the centres have limited opening times – Aberfoyle, Aviemore and Oban, which will have affected their numbers.

iCentre	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Aberdeen	41,971	5,550	9,791	20,861	30,044
Aberfoyle	74,927	13,254	35,425	57,417	55,674
Aviemore	73,929	13,237	24,416	48,263	38,003
Ballater	101,237	15,941	30,690	61,035	72,636
Balloch	72,977	15,810	28,632	49,492	52,671
Bowmore	23,185	2,803	7,217	9,981	14,401
Brodick	26,547	2,677	10,647	20,404	20,483
Craignure	68,613	9,530	23,908	46,252	53,415
Dumfries	21,089	6,764	9,349	11,919	11,588
Edinburgh	268,635	33,468	42,193	148,570	183,750
Fort William	152,934	17,148	25,435	78,784	88,672
Glasgow	107,918	11,078	15,448	53,143	67,282
Inverness	115,326	14,393	26,906	72,162	78,688
Jedburgh	24,246	5,241	12,178	19,133	22,832
Kirkwall	139,967	7,704	21,434	73,182	122,304
Lerwick	56,555	7,322	17,886	39,321	52,991
Oban	150,821	15,816	38,062	72,905	60,124
Perth	29,744	6,619	10,210	18,524	21,626
Pitlochry	44,558	7,777	18,641	34,340	34,304
Portree	99,596	10,468	20,892	49,563	54,993
Rothesay	60,347	9,410	13,255	36,271	54,464
St Andrews	97,920	10,880	23,448	52,578	68,087
Stirling	87,053	16,100	23,847	42,664	60,138
Stornoway	30,033	2,510	11,571	18,939	19,052
Ullapool	34,388	3,496	9,811	27,982	31,838

It’s pretty clear from all of this, that VisitScotland made the decision to close all the iCentres without taking into consideration that last year, 2023, tourism was still bouncing back from the effects of the Covid pandemic. Inexplicably they changed from an electronic footfall counter to a manual one in November when it would be assumed the collection of data was important.

Scotland’s publicly funded tourism organisation will no longer have a presence in our towns once these closures happen. It’s quite astonishing when the sector has become so important to the Scottish economy. The complete failure to embrace the vision of the Islands Act and to complete an Islands Impact Assessment demonstrates the disregard this tax payer funded organisation has to communities up and down Scotland.

It’ll be interesting to see what the figures for 2024 will be, however, by the time those come out, some of the iCentres will already be closed, including Lerwick, Shetland.

Fiona Grahame