This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

“You’d struggle to find anyone in the Highlands who is anti-tourist,” says the SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Kate Forbes, “but some people have been pushed to the brink.” Forbes adds succinctly: “There is perfectly legitimate nimbyism going on when someone is doing the toilet in your garden!”

Locals and politicians agree that the summer of 2017 saw the exponential growth in tourist numbers reach a tipping point. Across the Highlands, this year’s peak season brought reports of motorhome waste dumped by the roadside in the Western Isles, police advising visitors to Skye to book overnight accommodation in advance, and warnings of an increase in accidents along the newly launched North Coast 500 route as unfamiliar drivers struggled to negotiate narrow single track roads.

Ever increasing visitor numbers caused intolerable strain on parking, toilets, wifi, phone reception, public transport and wet weather facilities, according to a report from Highland council.

It has prompted Forbes to arrange a Q&A session on Friday with the Scottish government’s minister for tourism Fiona Hyslop, where she will face tough questioning from Skye residents to address their concerns.

Scotland is experiencing an extraordinary surge in tourism, thanks to a potent mix of whisky, heritage and scenery.



The numbers speak for themselves: Scottish distilleries now rival St Paul’s cathedral in terms of annual visitors, the North Coast 500 route has lured an extra 29,000 visitors to the Highlands, with the area experiencing a 26% annual rise in visitors, and a 48% increase in visitor spend from North America over the last year alone (June 2016-17).

There are fears that tourism in the region has become unsustainable and places too great a strain on roads, accommodation and other facilities around Scotland’s many popular but often remote tourist spots.

In response Nicola Sturgeon announced a £6m rural tourism infrastructure fund at last week’s SNP conference.

Forbes welcomes the funding boost, and is keen to emphasise the lifeline that tourism provides to rural areas until recently facing depopulation and economic decline.



Forbes herself is championing a park-and-ride scheme for Skye designed to ease vehicle pressure on the island by encouraging tourists to leave cars on the mainland and take shuttle buses to popular sites, which can also offer transport to locals.

Allan Henderson, chair of the Highland council’s environment, development and infrastructure committee, welcomes the new fund’s focus on communities rather than councils, pointing to the tradition of active community engagement across the region.

He says: “It expands the potential to provide funding for community groups that are already coming up with relatively inexpensive local solutions.”

Highland council’s report sets out a range of suggestions, including seeking World Heritage status for Skye and charging for access to popular sites.



Meanwhile, the Western Isles SNP MSP, Alasdair Allan, has asked the Scottish government to consider introducing a “motorhome levy” after islanders reported a huge increase in pressure on ferry provision with some locals unable to return home at the end of the working week on the mainland because car spaces had been booked in advance by visitors.

Another regional MSP, Labour’s David Stewart, has teamed up with Tesco in Inverness to distribute a leaflet detailing the dos and don’ts of driving on single track roads throughout the supermarket chain’s local filling stations network.

Edward Mountain, Conservative MSP for Highlands and Islands, argues that tourist infrastructure needs to develop beyond the months of peak demand. Given the troubling tales of al fresco urination over the summer, toilets are a good place to start, and Mountain is lobbying Highland council, which closes some toilet blocks during the winter. For its part, the council has confirmed that it will be establishing criteria for providing public toilets that includes visitor footfall.

Mountain says: “The increase in numbers is not just in summer but throughout the year. We need to become a more year-round destination.”

The reasons for the recent escalation in visitor numbers are various, including Brexit, the exchange rate, heavy promotion by Visit Scotland, as well as the popularity of a certain historical fantasy series.

But although Outlander contains many impressive Highland vistas and indeed its theme is a version of the Skye Boat Song, locals suggest more technological reasons.

Over the past 20 years there has been a significant shift in people taking inspiration for holiday destinations from relatives and friends – or indeed strangers on TripAdvisor – rather than official tourist organisations.



Last month VisitScotland opened a pop-up Instagram travel agency, which allowed visitors to build their own trips based entirely around other people’s social media photos.

Elgar Finlay, development officer for Glendale Trust on the north-west of Skye, argues: “I think films and TV have a small part to play but really it’s the explosion of social media. Everyone has an Instagram or Facebook account, they take stunning pictures of our island and upload them to 500 friends. People think that’s pretty accessible and just down the road, lets go!”