Highland Council to encourage tourist businesses to extend opening hours

Highland Council has agreed the following motion at its meeting today 27 October 2016.

“Tourism is one of the main economic drivers in the Highlands and yet most visitor attractions do not open beyond 5pm.  Compared to Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, the Highlands is not moving forward with the trend to offer tourists what they want, which is the freedom to visit attractions in the evening, as well as daytime.  We must move with the times if we want to continue attracting an increasing number of visitors to our region.

Council calls upon Visit Scotland, HIE, High Life Highland and their partners to enter into urgent talks to find a way to encourage businesses to extend their opening hours, including evenings and weekends and peak local holiday periods, across all Highland in all locations”.  

The motion was put forward by Councillors Ms M Smith   Mr K Gowans