Thurso community councillors want tourist bodies to help promote Caithness as a destination for visitors
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A CALL has been made for VisitScotland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to do more to help promote Caithness as a tourist destination.
The plea was made by Thurso Community Council this week with members claiming that the county is often regarded as a stop-off point for tourists heading to Orkney.
Louise Smith, speaking at Tuesday night's meeting, said Caithness has "a lot to offer" but often visitors just see it as a gateway to the Orkney islands.
She suggested tourists could do "a circular tour" of the county and take in places such as Old St Peter's Church in Thurso, the Camster Cairns, Wick and other places.
Ms Smith said it is important to get the information to the visitors and let them know what they can see here.
Simon Collier, who runs Mr C's cocktail bar in Thurso and was at Tuesday night's meeting, said the tour operators itineraries are often driven by ferry timetables which may not leave much time to see what Caithness has to offer.
Community council treasurer, Elspeth Husband, said by the time visitors get here their trips are all pre-arranged but she felt Caithness "could sell itself better" and hoped bodies such as VisitScotland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise could have a conversation about how to help do that.
Billy Sinclair said it is "an absolute sin" the nearest tourist office to Caithness is in Kirkwall and claimed that "shows the contempt" VisitScotland has for the far north.
"Thurso and Wick are the two biggest towns on the North Coast 500 route but have no tourist offices and that is terrible," he said.
Later, Ian McElroy, who was at the meeting as a member of the public, felt more could be done to make the area attractive to visitors.
He said: "If you are coming into Thurso by train the first thing you see is a shitty phone box at the station and it is the last thing you see when you leave."
Mr McElroy also felt the signs around the town and coming into Thurso could be improved to help tourists get around.
Mrs Husband said the railway station could "do with a bit of refurbishment" – a point which was endorsed by chairwoman, Thelma Mackenzie and other community councillors.
Eann Sinclair, the area manager for Highlands and Islands Enterprise, said the agency has a role in tourism but it is many years since it was involved in tourist marketing. He pointed out Venture North is the destination management organisation for the area.
"Venture North is doing a really good job and working well with local businesses and VisitScotland and there is a lot of good stuff happening in the background," he said.
Mr Sinclair added: "The tourist industry has been really resilient in the last three years and has had to adapt to Covid, labour shortages and energy bills going through the roof but people are still coming here in vast numbers. I think we should talk ourselves up in tourist terms and can be proud of what the industry has done in the last three years, in particular."
