Visit Scotland are closing all their information centres

Well that's a very dear friend of mine out of a job then :-(

I doubt VS will change their minds and the replacement of tourists hubs will be left up to individual communities to manage.

Feels a short sighted move, Viscount Thurso's words in the article are very much up selling the situation, but a lot of people use TiCs, they are often great places to get info for places off of the beaten track that don't make it into guidebooks or forums like this. Plus you can get all the info possible on line, and still find Castle Aardvark is closed for urgent repairs, but the TiC people can recommend the nearby Dontgonearthe Castle which may be even better. The driver will of course be the Scottish Government's budget for tourism being cut. Again. Despite when done well tourism can be a good investment for an area.

Sad, but not surprised. It seems like many tourism offices don't even offer paper brochures anymore. I used to drop by to get maps in whatever city/country but now I'm usually stuck to taking a photo of one that the office has taped down on their counter.

The younger generations don't want it. They get and do everything online.

The Lake District National Park did the same thing years ago- eventually almost all got taken on by local groups- at least in the Central Area.

I agree all the Visit Scotland centres are always busy, but for me they lost a lot of purpose a long time ago when they started to assume that everyone went by car and stopped stocking public transport information. And at least half of each centre became a shop, not a place for information.

The one in Dumfries is a case in point- I could get timetables for the whole of Scotland there - bus, ferry and train. Then that stopped totally before Covid. And it is in totally the wrong part of the town, well away from the main foot traffic flows. It would have been far better in it's old home at Mid Steeple.

It is a huge shame, but was kind of inevitable.

What a ludicrous short sighted measure.
Same with doing away with the rangers who cover the NC500 ,one of which is a pal of mine.

Here's a post from 2022 about TI's in general.https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/do-you-visit-the-tourist-information-ti-when-you-travel

It's a mixed bag of opinions. I posted on it twice stating that I didn't find them extremely useful, however I will give the woman at the TI in Glasgow in 2022 credit for good advice. We were staying near Buchanan Street and the only restaurants we could find were fast food and chains. The woman directed us to walk 3 blocks east out of the tourist zone for plenty of choices, and she was right. We found an especially good Italian restaurant that we ate at twice.

This is just dumb.

Well, I do do a lot on my phone, but that doesn't mean I don't want to make use of a visitor centre. It's more personal and internet service isn't always reliable everywhere.

MapsMe, for example, doesn't seem to have a downloadable map of Skye where you can put in directions ro follow while offline.

I think it's terrible to close visitor centre's.

I'm sad to hear that. I don't depend on them as much now as I used to, but I still enjoy stopping by to see what info they have. I have a feeling, though, that this is the wave of the future.

I always visit the TI offices. Nothing beats speaking to a local about the area. I for one will miss them. Not everything can be done online.
Sorry for the folks out of a job.
Kathleen

I agree that not everything can be done online. We frequently stop at Visitor Information centers to get maps, brochures, etc. And ask the staff for recommendations on restaurants, etc.

Nothing beats speaking to a local about the area...Not everything can be done online.
Sorry for the folks out of a job.

I oftern think that we are no longer using technology -- it is now using us. And, Luddite that I am, I don't like it.