VisitScotland announces plan to reopen iCentres

VisitScotland has announced its plan to reopen its 26 iCentres by the end of August following a four-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a phased approach, which puts the safety of staff and visitors at the centre of the plan, the first four sites in Edinburgh, Balloch, Aviemore, Aberfoyle, and Jedburgh have opened this week. The second phase will begin on Monday, July 27 and will include five sites – Oban, St Andrews, Pitlochry, Portree and Ullapool.

The remaining sites be opened on a rolling throughout August.

The phased approach is due to the team at VisitScotland having to make internal changes to every one of the 26 iCentres to ensure they are adapted for physical distancing, but also to continue to give visitors a warm welcome.

There will be a range of safety features installed, including Perspex screens, hand sanitisers and signs to ensure physical distancing, with some dates possible to change on the will basis dependence suppliers.

The reopened iCentres will initially only offer an information service to visitors with the hope of reintroducing ticketing, accommodation booking and retail as soon as safe to do so.

Throughout the lockdown, VisitScotland’s information service never really closed, with iCentre staff delivering visitor information through a range of other channels including a new messenger service, an iCentre telephone and email service, as well as other customer channels.

Manuela Calchini, Head of Information at VisitScotland said: ‘Our iCentres are a significant part of the community and we understand that there will be a desire to open them as soon as possible – we share that desire and want to support the tourism industry and communities as we come out of lockdown, however the safety of our staff and visitors is paramount.’ of materials and