Tweets no substitute for human kindness
WhEn visitScotland announced it was shutting down two-thirds of its tourist information centres, it seemed like the end of something.
the end of a certain type of Scotland, perhaps, where friendly ladies in sensible jumpers offered comforting tips about the best place to get a cup of tea after 4pm, while dog-eared posters of Eilean Donan castle adorned the walls.
For what Scot has not, at some time or another, wandered lost or confused into an information office in some farflung town seeking reassurance about the weather or directions to a B&B?
Solid, sturdy and sometimes the only place open in winter, the centres are as much a feature of traditional Scottish tourism as the queues for the calMac ferry, or those little packets of tartar sauce you get with your barmenu fish and chips.
visitScotland plans to shut 39 of its 65 centres over the next two years, leaving 26 ‘high-impact regional hubs’ (no, me neither). the tourism agency says it made the decision in response to the popularity of digital services among visitors and a decline in footfall to information centres.
two out of three visitors to Scotland now accesses information online (no surprise there), so the body will invest £10million in its digital activity.
to this end, visitScotland launched an instagram ‘pop up agency’ in london this week, urging people to plan a bespoke trip to Scotland based on PITY the residents of the pretty Trossachs village of Aberfoyle, who will face a 25-mile detour if they want to leave next week thanks to works shutting down the main access road. But that’s not the worst of it: next week is the English halfterm holiday and Aberfoyle relies heavily on tourism to keep its economy afloat. Did no one at the council check the calendar before giving such restrictive plans the green light? TORY Tim Loughton has admitted to spending an hour in the bath every morning ‘just thinking about things’. Either the MP gets up at 5am to indulge in this ritual, or he has far too much time on his hands. alluring pictures posted by other travellers on the social media site. So far, so very 21st century. But i wonder if our national tourism agency isn’t being a bit hasty.
last week in this column i wrote about loneliness, and how it affects the elderly in ever greater numbers.
in response i received a heartwrenching letter from a visitor service adviser at one of the doomed centres, who wrote: ‘i often find myself chatting to people who are so pleased to have somewhere warm to go to and to be able to engage in conversation with someone who is genuinely interested.
‘centres aren’t just about providing tourist information to tourists, they are information centres and focal points for everyone in the local area.’
ThiS is the nub of it. the letter writer went on to say that the centre often provides a service akin to a citizens advice Bureau, and that its closure will mean ‘a lot of lonely people will have an even lonelier existence’.
tourism centres are an integral part of what are often remote communities, places that are becoming ever more soulless thanks to the decline of the high street and the closure of libraries. We are moving towards an increasingly digital world and while businesses and public organisations must adapt, we must not lose sight of the fact that you cannot replace bricks, mortar and the warmth of real human beings with a few tweets. DURING parliamentary recess last week, Ruth Davidson took part in a charity special of the Great British Bake Off, to be shown later this year. The SNP’s Social Security Minister Jeanne Freeman promptly tweeted about it, attacking the Scottish Tory leader for not ‘getting on with her day job’. That she posted this while on holiday in Majorca would be outrageous, were it not so laughable. Talk about having your (Bake Off) cake and eating it.