A Loch Lomond tourism group is looking for public support to keep a seasonal information point open for visitors to Balloch.
Loch Loch Lomond has been in discussions with various parties to try to continue to provide a seasonal visitor information from spring 2025, filling the gap caused by VisitScotland’s decision to close its year-round Visitor Information Centre in Balloch.
VisitScotland revealed in April that they would be closing their iCentre in the village as part of a strategy; “designed to grow the visitor economy by influencing visitors in the planning stage of their trip, before they leave home.”
So far Love Loch Lomond have received a partial funding offer from Flamingo Land, the developers behind the Lomond Banks project which was rejected by National Park planners earlier this month, but require volunteers and additional funding to make their goal a reality.
Chair of Love Loch Lomond, Kathryn Adam says: “When it was announced that VisitScotland was closing its Visitor Information Centre in Balloch at the end of this month, we knew we had to try to get involved and attempt to keep some form of visitor information provision in the local area, likely seasonal.
“For those businesses that rely heavily on tourists, particularly those who are rural and off the beaten track, the closure is a real blow and will potentially seriously impact their trading.
“Loch Lomond has such a wide range of businesses catering to tourists and, as an area, offers a truly fantastic experience for those discovering the area. It very much deserves to be supported as much as possible and, visitors encouraged to stay for longer and really explore what it has to offer.
“Whilst Jackie Baillie MSP has been very helpful and Lomond Banks has made a generous offer of partial funding, we do still need to source additional funding and possible volunteers to help at any new visitor information centre.
“Because of this, we are appealing to any businesses or individuals who are interested in supporting this initiative to get in touch and we’d love to hear from them.
“They can get in touch with us at [email protected] and we’ll happily speak to them about any offers, suggestions or ideas they may have on how we can make it possible.”
Jim Paterson, Development Director at Lomond Banks, added: “This is something we are very keen to support, as it also aligns with our vision to support as many local businesses and visitor facilities as possible.
“We’re proud to support Love Loch Lomond as part of our Lomond Promise and, should we become an operational business, we would look to be actively working within the community, contributing to the local area to forge many more potential partnerships such as this.”
Love Loch Lomond chiefs are also hopeful that, going forward, should there be a tourist tax introduced in West Dunbartonshire in 2026, they can enter discussions with the council to seek funds from the levy to secure the future of any visitor information provision in Balloch.