Return of tourists key in island’s battle to survive

Recovery group issues stark warning amid fears Arran will be left behind

Arran is facing an economic disaster unless urgent action is taken to re-open the island to tourism.

That is the stark warning from island businesses this week who fear Arran is going to be left behind as Scotland prepares to reopen tourism on July 15 (see page two).

For the island to have any chance of recovery, they say there must be immediate action to restore 50 per cent of ferry capacity from the start of July to allow visitors to the island. But they want day trippers banned to allow more capacity for visitors staying overnight or for longer.

One of the island’s leading businesswomen, Linda Johnston, said: ‘The threat to life on the island as we know it is serious and under imminent risk if urgent action is not taken.’

Whilst actual cases of COVID-19 have been thankfully low, the effect of the pandemic on the island has been massive.

Tourism, local industry and opportunities for young people have all been impacted. But while the present is bad enough, the future could be bleak for years unless a proper plan for sustained recovery is implemented.

Tourism contributes £69 million to the Arran economy and the stark reality is that as many as 1,500 of the 2,000 jobs it provides could, potentially, be lost. A range of groups, which have long co-operated for the benefit of Arran, have come together as Arran Recovery Group (ARG) to agree a programme of recovery that seeks to balance the four main strands of island life – health and wellbeing, community, environment and economic development. At the heart of everything is a commitment to safety for our people, for our visitors and for the wider Arran community.

It is clear Arran accommodation businesses are holding high levels of pre-bookings from mid-July and would be able to achieve occupancy levels approaching previous years, even with social distancing in place.

The ferry is the only lifeline for Arran, and ARG is calling on Caledonian MacBrayne to ensure social distancing does not kill capacity and imperil the economic recovery. They say a solution can be found that would safely allow 50 per cent of the 2019 passenger levels to be restored this summer.

To help manage reduced capacity, ARG is suggesting there should be no day visitors allowed on the ferry during the initial recovery phases, with priority being given to essential workers, commercial traffic, local people, those visiting family, and tourists who intend to stay on Arran for more than one night.

To achieve this they want to see a full summer timetable with two ferries reinstated on the Ardrossan to Brodick route from July 1 and increased capacity on the Lochranza to Cloanaig route, with the addition of another ferry if that can be provided.

ARG is also calling for an Island Survival Plan to ensure Arran has a future.

Chairman of Arran Economic Group Tom Tracey said: ‘We need to ensure there is capacity – safe capacity – on the ferry to allow our businesses to operate. We believe that the plan as has been outlined contravenes the spirit and legal framework of the Islands Act and needs to be addressed urgently by the government before businesses start closing permanently.’ Linda Johnston, co-founder and managing director of Auchrannie Resort, has written to the Scottish Government to outline the catastrophic damage that will be caused unless urgent action is taken at the highest level.

She said: ‘It is clear the Scottish Government sees the islands exiting lockdown behind the rest of Scotland and that ferry capacity to the islands is expected to be below 20 per cent. Both of these present an unprecedented threat and clearly leave the islands at a disadvantage to the rest of Scotland and the UK. Clearly, there is currently no plan for the islands.’

Arran Recovery Group is calling for urgent intervention at the highest level to provide clarity on ferry capacities, timescales for island re-opening and details of how island businesses and employees will be financially supported to allow them to survive the pandemic and provide the future Arran and its community desperately need. Linda added: ‘The island needs to work together with a collective voice to make sure we get the ferry capacity to allow us to follow the Scottish government route map out of lockdown when it is safe to do so and to support our community, island infrastructure and economy. If this cannot be provided the island will need financial support from government to avoid economic collapse.’