Thurso hotelier hits out at night skies claim
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ONE of nature’s most spectacular sights happens right on their doorstep, but businesses in Caithness do not seem to acknowledge it.
That is the view of local hotelier Liz Sutherland who argues more needs to be done to encourage tourists to witness the spectacular northern lights.
Owner of the Pentland Lodge House in Thurso, Mrs Sutherland has a number of guests who stay at her premises specifically to witness the phenomenon.
However, she spoke out after reading a feature in The Times newspaper in which a Thurso hotelier was quoted as saying they couldn’t remember the last time they saw the northern lights in Caithness, advising tourists they would be better off in Aberdeen.
Mrs Sutherland said at a time when accommodation providers in the North were complaining about the lack of marketing of the local industry, she was amazed someone in the business could be so dismissive.
“My point is that the person who said this obviously knows nothing about the current situation of the northern lights,” she told the Groat. “There has been an enormous amount of interest in them appearing above the skies of Caithness recently. Scientific experts are saying that 2012 will be the best year for sightings of the northern lights for 50 years.
“It is a fact that the more north you go the more chance you have of witnessing the northern lights and Thurso is an extremely good place to spot this phenomenon. You have a better chance of witnessing it in the Far North than in Aberdeen, but that is not to say that you can’t see them in the north-east.”
Mrs Sutherland runs an aurora borealis alert service on her hotel website to advise customers of when the best time of the year is to see them.
She said as much as she wants to attract guests, she doesn’t want them to arrive and be disappointed because they couldn’t see them.
She said it has been an enormous draw in attracting guests to stay at her hotel and more needs to be done to highlight this popular attraction.
“This is a golden opportunity for the Thurso hotel industry to promote tourism during the winter months,” she said.
“Many articles have said that Caithness is a cheaper alternative than flying to Norway or Iceland and more needs to be done. I only have eight rooms at my lodge but I have more people on my list than I can possibly accommodate.
“If I have no room then I give them links to other hotels available in the town. Locals in Caithness can’t understand why so many people come to visit the area, but it is because of the beauty which exists here on the ground and the sky.”
The aurora borealis usually occurs in Caithness between October and March – to view alerts visit http:/aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/
WHAT ARE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS?
The northern lights – also called the aurora borealis – are ?a colourful light show ?that occurs naturally in ?the sky in the northern hemisphere.
They happen because of storms that take place on the surface of the sun.
These storms send out radiation, called the solar wind, that lights up the sky when it collides with Earth’s magnetic field at the poles.
