The VisitScotland iCentre on the Royal Mile reopened for business on Monday All others across Scotland will be up and running again by the end of the month.
There are of course some changes inside to allow for physical distancing measures, but the centre will aim for the same warm welcome as before.There will be perspex screens, hand sanitisers and signage to direct visitors as you might by now have come to expect.
The centres are where information about Scotland’s tourism is available from accommodation to ticketing, but in the first place they will aim to offer information service before retail. Staff have been delivering visitor information through the iCentre telephone and email over the last three months. They have also managed around 1800 accommodation bookings remotely.
Over 20 million people use the VisitScotland website each year and usually around 10 per cent of those go to the iCentres all over the country.
Manuela Calchini, Head of Information at VisitScotland said: “Our iCentre staff have been working to get the centres reopened and are looking forward to being able to help visitors with face to face enquiries for the first time in four months. The information services never really closed however, and I’d like to pay tribute to the team for all its hard work in getting to this point.
“Our iCentres are a significant part of the community and we understand that there will be a desire to open them as soon as possible – we share that desire and want to support the tourism industry and communities as we come out of lockdown, however the safety of our staff and visitors is paramount.”
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