Tourist trade badly hit by second ferry disruption
Arran stands to lose more than £500,000 of business as a result of the island not having a second ferry for the start of the summer tourist season, writes Hugh Boag.
The Ardrossan to Brodick route has been operating with a single ferry from the start of the summer timetable at the end of April as the MV Isle of Arran is deployed elsewhere.
The problem is compounded as the MV Caledonian Isles is still operating at a reduced capacity, although an additional ferry has been put on the Claonaig to Lochranza route.
Auchrannie Resort in Brodick has estimated the disruption will cost it £83,000 in lost bookings, while Robbie Crawford, of the Kinloch Hotel, said his business had lost out on about £30,000 due to cancelled bookings.
The Arran Recovery
Group has estimated that if this is increased pro rata for accommodation providers, it would amount to approximately a £500,000 loss of business. Total loses from day trippers and support services would make this significantly higher.
The setback could not have come at a worse time as the island finally opens up to visitors again after months of lockdown, but the start of the season has been fairly slow.
Co-founder and managing director at Auchrannie Resort in Brodick Linda Johnston told the Banner: ‘We are lucky that we have high demand for accommodation both at Auchrannie and on the island, and we are fairly busy, however, we are unable to fulfil demand due to lack of ferry capacity. We are tracking our occupancy and income daily against the business we expected from April 26 to May 17 and currently the shortfall in income is expected to be around £83,000 and occupancy is approximately 10 per cent below expected levels.
‘With very limited availability on the ferry from Ardrossan and visitors naturally reluctant to add three hours on to their journey by travelling to Claonaig, particularly when this service cannot be booked, it is difficult to see how we can fill empty rooms.
‘The problem extends beyond May 17 when, even with two boats back on service, weekend availability remains very limited from Ardrossan, although there is pressure on CalMac to reduce the present 80/20 capacity to 90/10.’
Linda, who is also chairperson and director of The Coig touring routes, said: ‘It is disappointing that Arran is without adequate ferry capacity at the very time when we are able to welcome visitors back to the island and many businesses have their first opportunity to trade viably for 5 ½ months.
‘Of course, this impacts the whole of Arran’s community and economy and not just businesses directly related to tourism and the worry is that this happens again due to the lack of resilience in the ferry and port infrastructure.
‘We urgently need contingency short-, medium- and long-term plans to be put in place to provide the islands with the adequate and reliable ferry services needed to make sure that life and business remains sustainable now and in the future.’
The present redeployment of the MV Isle of Arran to service freight on the Ullapool to Stornoway route is due to repairs required to the MV Loch Seaforth but CalMac says these as progressing to plan.
Robbie Drummond, managing director of CalMac, told the Banner: ‘We are aware that there is an impact of removing the second vessel from Arran’s summer service to cover for disruptions elsewhere in the network and we would like to apologise for this.
‘We are working closely with local businesses to make sure that demand for travel is accommodated as much as possible, including putting on extra sailings via Lochranza. This is a temporary disruption and we still expect to have the second ferry back on the route for May 17. I am most grateful to our customers for their support, patience and understanding at this time.’