Holyrood failed us on tourism, say islanders

THE head of a body created to control tourism on Skye has accused the Scottish Government of failing to prepare for an influx of tourists.

Visit Scotland estimates the population of the community swells by around 150,000 people every summer, with tourists clogging roads with cars and churning up once-green fields.

The Scottish Government has already announced plans to ease the island’s crisis by creating new car parks at the Old Man of Storr and the Fairy Pools tourism attractions as the holiday season on Skye extends from four to ten months.

The number of holidaymakers spending time in the Highlands has risen due to the success of the North Coast 500 coastal motoring route and the ‘Outlander effect’ of the TV series.

But Shirley Spear, a restaurateur and chairman of Skye Connect, which encourages tourists to visit less popular parts of the island, said ‘the chickens have come home to roost at once’ and

‘Action is too little, too late ’

described the Government’s efforts are too little, too late.

She told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘Visitors create jams on singletrack roads. They don’t know how to drive on them and can’t use passing places properly.

‘If you’re trying to get about your work, get to the doctor’s or pick up the kids from school, it can be very frustrating having to be at the end of a queue or gridlocked on a single-track road.’

She added: ‘My biggest gripe in all of this is the planners, the politicians – the Government have not thought this out carefully. They have not planned ahead, and all the chickens have come home to roost in the last couple of years.

‘There is a lack of funding and lack of any solution about how we are going to deal with this.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are working to ensure that tourism on Skye – a vital part of the island’s economy – remains sustainable.

‘Our rural tourism infrastructure fund will see £6million invested from this year to help ensure that the facilities tourists need are in place.’