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Too many visitors?

August 2017

After years in the past of bemoaning that the geographic remoteness of our beautiful Highlands, meant that businesses there struggled to attract visitors in meaningful numbers, those same landscapes are seeing such increased volumes of visitors that they struggle to cope.

The issues are many - lack of toilet provision, traffic congestion, huge amounts of litter, deteriorating road surfaces and shortage of accommodation, to name a few. Of course, the flux of visitors is good news for many local businesses including accommodation providers, garages, petrol stations and craft shops seeing a big increase in their income.

You don’t have to look too far to see what has been instrumental in bringing about this change in fortunes. Some of the Harry Potter films, the James Bond film ‘Skyfall’ featuring a number of iconic locations as well as TV shows such as Outlander have really raised the profile. In addition TV ads, promotional videos and in 2014 global coverage for the independence referendum, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Ryder Cup. Add to the mix the growth in cruise ship visits to an increasing number of ports and the launch and success of the North Coast 500 route. Scotland enjoys the limelight.

Of course the surge of visitors is largely seasonal but nevertheless, the experience endures beyond the length of the stay, however brief. It would be well nigh on impossible to predict just how popular many of the locations have become, publicity notwithstanding. Unfortunately it would seem that many trips weren’t properly planned as there have been many tales of visitors simply turning up with no accommodation booked to find there was no room at the inn (or the campsite). Not to mention the frustration from gridlock on single track roads near the most famous beauty spots and general lack of public toilets. Is that the memory we want our visitors to leave with and then share on social media?

But at a very minimum, we need somehow to get improved investment for our infrastructure in these areas. The years of under-investment are now made manifest. You have to feel some sympathy for the Local Authorities, especially Highland Council. They have the full responsibility to ensure adequate public toilet provision and upkeep of the non-trunk roads. But our protracted method of public funding means that any additional taxes including VAT from local businesses goes straight to the Treasury and is then divvied out. Immediate additional support to improve infrastructure looks unlikely.

Tourism is incontrovertibly good for the local economy whether that’s in Skye or Edinburgh and supports many jobs. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) the industry is set to grow by over 4% per annum globally from 2017 – 2027. Many other industries would give their proverbial ‘eye teeth’ for that kind of predicted growth. The challenge is how to encourage government – local and national – to give a sustainable tourism growth strategy some priority. Improvements to infrastructure would be a start, investment by the private sector would quickly follow by way of opening small businesses.

Given the growth we have seen to date in our own country and what the WTTC forecasts, whatever problems there are, we’d really be missing a trick if collectively we are not able to overcome them. It’s not enough to be polite and welcoming on a personal level, that is just one link in the chain. As Aristotle famously said “… the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, so we need to get it all right, first time and every time! Too many visitors - surely not?

Eva McDiarmid


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