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Tourist information offices in Barra and North Uist are closing for good in two weeks.

 

The two bases are the first port of call for many travellers disembarking from ferries.

 

The centre in South Uist shut earlier this year.

 

Staff affected will be offered redundancy or redeployment.

 

Only offices in Tarbert and Stornoway will remain open.

 

The closures are part of a strategy to cut 60% of VisitScotland information centres .

Some 39 of its 65 centres will close their doors over the next two years, starting with the Western Isles.

VisitScotland said they have experienced a 58% drop in footfall in the past 12 years, saying two out of three visitors now access information online.

 

The organisation said it was consulting with the local tourism industry over the location of a regional hub in the islands though Stornoway seems the main option.

 

Almost 100 local visitor facilities in the Western Isles will support the main hub with “information provision” to tourists - including the Calanais Visitor Centre, Bernera Museum, Uig Museum, Seallam, the Ravenspoint Centre, Castlebay Hotel, Borrodale Hotel, Lochboisdale Café and Nunton House Hostel.

 

 

 

Only two island tourist information offices escape closure plans

12 Oct 2017

Visitors arriving off the Lochboisdale ferry find the tourist office is no longer operating