VisitScotland to close down 25 of its iCenters by 2026

By Brandon McLean

Outside of the Glasgow iCenter taken by Molly Gibson

Tourism organisation VisitScotland has announced closures of its 25 information centres (iCentres) around Scotland. They plan on having no more in person centres by 2026.

VisitScotland claims that most visitors now take an online approach to planning their trip. Because of this they will be prioritising their services online in their new “digital first” scheme.
All centres will run as they are until the end of September. Visit has stated there will be no obligatory redundancies, as they plan to offer affected employees the alternative of redeployment, reskilling or voluntary redundancy.

The UK government has expressed concern toward this approach and is encouraging the Scottish government to reconsider these plans.

There are mixed views among those working in the tourism industry.

Ali Wahab, a salesman at the Tartan House of Scotland in Glasgow, said: “I feel like it’s actually a lot easier to have everything online. People can do whatever they need anywhere at anytime through their phone. You can also get better deals online. Probably older folks just won’t visit, but I don’t think it will decrease the overall number of tourists in the city. Older people don’t really know how to use the technology, so we’ll probably just be getting fewer old people booking trips.”

Roz Menzies, a worker for the Glasgow City Sightseeing Bus, said: “It’s a shame. We see a lot of different people around here George Square for these busses. We’re just round the corner from the iCentre and there’s a lot of conversation between the two places. They’ll talk to us about road closures and what’s going on in the city. We’ll share customers.”
“But people of all ages still don’t know what to do and where to go and sending them there is a really good idea. I think there’ll be more confused people walking around not knowing what’s happening, where to go or what to do.”

Tourists to the city also raised concern.

Cecile Mercer, a tourist from the US, said: “We probably need physical locations still. I don’t think older people will be using the new online tourism help as much as they could.”

Additional reporting by Molly Gibson