Remote UK tourism offices close in favour of online 'hubs' – but the signal's too poor to use them

Lochboisdale on South Uist has lost its tourism centre
Lochboisdale on South Uist has lost its tourism centre Credit: Getty

Plans to replace traditional tourist centres with “virtual” hubs in some of the most remote areas of the British Isles have been criticised as unworkable because mobile and broadband coverage is so poor in rural areas.

Tourists will struggle to find information on last-minute hotel availability, activities such as island boat trips and even weather forecasts because they simply will not be able to access the internet, warn regional businesses.

Visit Scotland, the government tourist agency, announced this week it is to close two thirds of its Visitor Information Centres (VIC), including many in far-flung regions, such as the Outer Hebrides, Shetland and Thurso on the mainland north coast.

On the Outer Hebrides three out of four centres will close. A fifth, in Lochboisdale on South Uist, closed last year. The closures come despite many rural VICs reporting an increase in numbers.

Outer Hebrides Tourism (OHT) is among those calling for a re-think. “The notion that everybody is going digital is quite an Edinburgh-centric view,” said Robert McKinnon, OHT vice-chairman. “Digital infrastructure on the Outer Hebrides is woeful, you're pleased if you pick up a voicecall, let alone download a website.”

The Scottish islands benefit from their remote beauty - but not from fast internet
The Scottish islands benefit from their remote beauty - but not from fast internet Credit: ©spumador - stock.adobe.com

Much of the Outer Hebrides is a mobile-free zone: south of Stornoway on the island of Lewis it can be hard to get a signal at all. Where Wi-Fi exists it is usually “island speed”, providing upload connection speeds of just 2mbps. The UK average speed is 3.7mbps.

Guesthouse owners often ask that visitors refrain from downloading large files to avoid clogging up the service for other users. Thanks to the vagaries of weather, islanders are familiar with being without the internet for days at a time, but rural VICs provide a lifeline for visitors, offering services as basic as a weather forecast that can determine how tourists spend their day, said McKinnon.

The UK mapped by broadband speeds

He said: “Lots of things are accessible here if you know them but you have to ask or be told - that there's a wonderful beach down there but you have to clamber over a fence to get to it. If you're new to these islands you will miss out.”

McKinnon says there are cultural, as well as technological risks in turning tourism into a predominantly digital industry. “It's easy to say we're about resisting change, that islanders are yokels,” he said. “It's not that - the islands score very highly on visitor satisfaction, especially when it comes to personal interaction.

“What do we become if we make ourselves like everywhere else in the world? If Visit Scotland doesn't have the money for gold standard VICs then perhaps we need to look at running them in other ways.”

Andy Biddles, owner of Heron Point B&B in Lochboisdale, says it is essential for tourism to retain a human presence. “The removal of our tourist office was a nail in the coffin of Lochboisdale. We found a 70-year-old Swiss lady walking off the ferry late at night this summer. There was nowhere for her to ask for accommodation. Heaven knows where she would have slept if we hadn't squeezed her in.

“We then booked her rooms up the islands for the next two weeks. If we hadn't, she would have left the next day and spent her money elsewhere. This is a debacle, it's short-sighted and the impact will be felt across Scotland.”

Visit Scotland denies the move is a cost-cutting measure and maintains its centres have suffered a 58 per cent drop in footfall in the past 12 years, saying two out of three visitors now access information online. It says 39 of its 65 centres would shut over the next two years, leaving 26 'high impact' regional hubs". Up to 71 staff are affected.  

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