Ambitious Tourism Infrastructure Development Plan Approved

26th August 2022

Economy and Infrastructure Committee Members (Thursday 25 August) approved the Strategic Tourism Infrastructure Development Plan (STIDP). Its purpose to direct future national and local area-based Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund (RTIF) spend.

Economy and Infrastructure Committee Chair, Cllr Ken Gowans said: "VisitScotland through Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund (RTIF), awarded The Highland Council funding to produce a Strategic Tourism Infrastructure Development Plan (STIDP) to identify key tourism infrastructure priorities for future RTIF support over the next 2-5 years. Today, Members endorsed the STIDP plan and Officers can now begin to focus on a programme for delivering a further 22 ambitious projects.

"Over the past five years the RTIF has contributed to 29 RTIF projects and I am delighted to see the positive impact made to our rural communities and the improvements to the visitor experience.

"To date RTIF projects have received over £5.2m awarded with a combined value of almost £9.4m. This constitutes 35% of the total national budget awarded and indicates the scale and commitment to making infrastructure improvements across Highland. We recognise that we still have a way to go and look forward to seeing a further 22 future developments in the years to come."

The purpose of the STIDP is to identify key priorities for tourism infrastructure in Highland over the medium term. The plan looks at publicly accessible infrastructure, either provided by the public sector or by third parties /commercial stakeholders, unlike the previous 4 rounds, where applications were accepted on an individual basis, future rounds of RTIF will focus on delivering the priorities within the Highland Strategic Tourism Infrastructure Development Plan.

The plan identifies two levels of tourism infrastructure related priorities:

Tier One -Identifies eight hotspot areas, where multiple sites experience multiple pressures across different types of infrastructure.
Tier Two - Identifies tourism infrastructure at individual sites out with the main hotspot areas that face similar pressures or have ambitions to attract more visitors to elevate pressures from more popular areas.
The plan identifies twenty-two projects that the Highland Council and its partners plan to take forward over the next 2-5 years as priorities.

The STIDP includes the following:

Glencoe and Glen Etive £1,450,000

Glencoe Greenway - A82 Glencoe Active Travel Project £500,000
Glencoe Village & Ballachulish Public Toilet Upgrades £220,000
Glencoe Village Car Park £705,000
Glen Etive Road End Parking £25,000
Glen Nevis £442,221

Glen Nevis Roadside Parking (Achintee) £61,600
Glen Nevis Road End Car Park (Steall) &
Lower Falls Parking and Bridge Replacement £145,621
Event Car Parking Nevis Forest £177,000
Expansion of the North Face Car Park £58,000
Road to the Isles (Glenfinnan Mallaig) £326,610

B8008 Parking and Traffic Management £326,610
Isle of Skye £1,320,000

Visitor Car Park and Public Transport Improvements £610,000
Dunvegan Public Toilet Upgrade £110,000
Bayfield Car Park Expansion and Toilets £600,000
Applecross £132,000

Motorhome Stopover Site £132,000
North West Highlands (Loch Broom to Durness) £2,873,871

Parking Improvements across North West Sutherland £368,359
Smoo Cave Parking and Toilet Upgrade £337,000
Blairmore Car Park and Toilets, Sandwood Estate £198,000
North West Sutherland Public Toilet Upgrades £502,000
Stac Pollaidh Visitor Facilities £642,000
Achmelvich Visitor Facilities £826,512
Fortrose - Rosemarkie - Chanonry Point £298,000

Chanonry Point Visitor Parking £298,000
Whaligoe Steps (Tier 2) £90,000

Whaligoe Steps Car Parking £90,000

Potential total costs of proposed projects £6,932,701. Costs are estimates and may be subject to change.

The Council is a member of the Highland Tourism Partnership, a strategic group that brings together representatives from the tourism industry with the main public sector organisations involved in tourism. During today's meeting (Thursday 25 August), Chair Cllr Ken Gowans was nominated to represent the Highland Council on this group.