THE Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) demanded an urgent meeting with tourism minister Fiona Hyslop last week in the wake of major ferry disruption.
Caledonian MacBrayne, which is owned by the Scottish Government, has been beset by troubles on its west coast routes due to repairs taking longer than usual, resulting in the temporary cancellation of the Mallaig-Lochboisdale route.
The problems come as visitor numbers to Scotland’s islands were revealed to be significantly up last year, according to VisitScotland.
The number of visits was said to have increased by 22%, bringing in an extra £36.9 million to the local economies, the Islands Visitor Survey 2017 showed.
