A tourism strategy has been developed for North Ayrshire which was initially aimed at making the most of the easing of lockdown restrictions.
The council last year set out to make the visitor experience as effective as possible by drawing up new plans aimed at:
- Creating a Visitor Management Plan to coordinate visitor management activities across the Council and communicate these.
- Improving the visitor experience that North Ayrshire provides, whilst mitigating adverse impacts on communities,
- Keeping litter management under control, especially in busy areas and improve toilet provision and take charge of ferry queues at Largs and the impact they have in the town centre.
- Street furniture and play equipment was also upgraded and there were discussions with motorhome drivers about how they could access their vehicles responsibly. It was also agreed to direct them to the most appropriate locations.
Plans were also set in motion to set up a system for feedback from visitors. Industry and people in local communities.
It was agreed to work on developing regional visitor economic strategies and Ayrshire Growth Deal projects.
Three additional squads of Streetscene were also put in place to deal with litter and Scottish Government funding was secured for this.
It was agreed to look at replacing and upgrading play park equipment across North Ayrshire and some 115 benches and 41 picnic tables were set to be replaced along with 51 upgraded, vermin-proof bins.
The council agreed to work with partners for improvements to the Cumbrae ferry slip, with tenders being designed and improvements made to queueing and marshalling at Largs.
The council also teamed up with partners to identify external funding to improve bus stop infrastructure , bus route extension and bus lane congestion measures.
The draft North Ayrshire Visitor Management Plan for 2022 set out a strategic approach to managing the impact of tourism within North Ayrshire in 2022, based on identifying key issues that arose during the 2021 peak season for domestic tourism, key challenges in managing the impact of visitors to North Ayrshire and establishing priorities and actions for managing the impact of visitors during 2022.
The visitor economy is an important sector of North Ayrshire’s economy.
In 2019, there were 3.2m visitor days with an economic impact of £211.8m, supporting 3,770 full time jobs.
Tory Leader Tom Marshall, who was involved in helping develop the plan, said: "The Visitor Management Plan will be complemented by an updated report to Cabinet in June."
Read next:
- Police Scotland set to leave Ayr base for new home in town
- Staggering moment 'casual' driver goes wrong way round Kilmarnock one way system
- Thousands expected to descend on Ayrshire town for welcome return of Holy Fair event
- 'A rave is no place for a wee dug': Lid lifted on bizarre Ayr festival requests
- Pub owners put traditional Ayrshire bar and restaurant up for sale with 'heavy heart'
Don't miss the latest Ayrshire headlines –sign up to our free daily
