Fears along road to the isles

The advert was placed by Argyll and the Isles Enterprise, Argyll and Bute Council, the European Leader Two programme and Argyll and the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling & Trossachs Tourist Board. All desperate to publicise that the A83 between Ardrishaig and Tarbert, which had been closed by a ''one-off'' landslide at exactly the same spot for the second time since March, had been cleared.

No longer would motorists have to drive the 30 long miles of the single track B8024 round by Kilberry, the diversion which could add an hour at the very least to a journey through Kintyre. Local hauliers demonstrated their frustration by blockading the main road last week. They made their point.

The Scottish Office has now

confirmed that the major remedial

work on the road will be undertaken in the autumn.

But there are some who believe that the road is not the only problem which needs a permanent solution. The Kintyre Marketing Group represents 120 different businesses involved in tourism on the peninsula. It is deeply concerned. Group secretary Bruce Urquhart has a four-star guest house above Campbeltown and is a director of the local tourist board. He says: ''When the RAF base at Machrihanish closed four years ago, the Kintyre Initiative was launched by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, but the only money in it was for the new Campbeltown/Northern Ireland ferry service. The Kintyre Initiative became the Irish Ferry. That was to be the panacea. The first sailings were in July last year, and there is no doubt we bucked the national trend and recorded at least a 10% increase in business. That was almost entirely due to the Irish ferry, although the massive investment in tourist information

offices in Tarbert and Campbeltown must have helped swell the figures as well.

''This year is different. According to the two leading hoteliers they were down 10% on last year, which is about the same as the rest of Scotland.''

''Since the landslip they are down an additional 10% to 12%. So in July they are 20% to 25% down. They are quality establishments who do a lot of advertising and marketing. The rest of the industry in Kintyre is at very least suffering the same drop. Our own figures have been very disappointing.

''This despite reports that ferry traffic is 10% up on last year.

''There is no doubt that the landslip has hit us hard. People have been hearing that they could get stuck. The tourist board has been in a very difficult position. Like the businesses trying to get fresh shellfish out, they want to draw the Government's attention to the road problem, but at the same time they do not want massive publicity about Kintyre being cut off at the height of the tourist season.

''We have also lost a lot of the business associated with the Irish ferry.

''Last year the ferry was in Campbeltown overnight which meant that we picked up a great deal of overnight business from people heading for the first ferry. But ferry operators Seacat had always planned to overnight her in Ballycastle once the harbour was completed this year. Now the first ferry does not leave Campeltown until 11.45am. So visitors can quite easily overnight in the likes of Oban and then drive down for the first ferry. The only positive note is that we get day trip business from Ballycastle, but that doesn't help the B&Bs, hotels, and guest houses.''

There were also real local fears that at some time Seacat could just withdraw the service. ''They have said they want to make it a success which I am sure they do, but they have no contractual obligations to tie them.'' This fear can only have been reinforced by this year's experience. The company began the service on a weekend basis in May and then suspended it for two weeks in June when it took its ferry, the Claymore, off to the Isle of Man to undertake a highly lucrative contract from motorcycle company Honda during of the TT races. The company is to use the money generated to underpin the Irish service but is likely to repeat the operation next year, leaving Kintyre another marketing nightmare for the start of the season.

But there is also a growing feeling that the Irish ferry will not prove the panacea which was expected to generate #7.7m a year for the Scottish economy with #2.8m staying in Argyll, and create up 80 to 90 local jobs.

Mr Urquhart is worried. ''I haven't seen much sign of the long-term benefits.''

HE ADDS: ''It has created a few jobs at the ferry terminal, but understandably not all the jobs have gone to local people. They are seasonal jobs, and it is a short season. But what monitoring is going on to establish the actual benefits of the ferry service given a public investment of around #5m on his side alone? Sometime the Eurocrats will want to know exactly what they got for their money. It is true that it will take a while for the service to build up, but how long do we have? ''The unemployment rate in Campbeltown is already worse than the national average, worse than the Highland average, worse than the West Highland average. So the general background, never mind the road or the ferry, is very worrying. We have to have more strings to the Kintyre bow than just the ferry.''

This was recognised some three years ago when an attempt was made to develop a Tourist Management Plan, drawing together all the different private and public tourist strands in Kintyre. Argyll and the Isles Enterprise became the lead group but there was a long delay before a steering group was established, but when it was there was agreement that there should be study undertaken.

''The Kintyre marketing group had already done a lot of work and we said we could produce a study quickly and for very little. But were told that we didn't have the expertise. Eventually it was given to Scott Wilson Resource Consultants in Edinburgh. They produced a gigantic report at a cost of #25,000 which was of little or no use. In the end one of our the marketing group's members had to do a smaller report at a cost of #1500 or something. This develops the idea of the Kintyre tourist trail. So finally, in April this year, we got an action plan. But it needs to be developed with some urgency. Kintyre needs to come further up the authorities' priorities. They can't forget about us just because we have got the ferry or because the road is getting fixed!''

Ken Abernethy, chief executive of Argyll and the Isles Enterprise, said ''The Irish ferry continues to be a major opportunity for Kintyre. It provides the means for Irish people to get to the area quickly and easily, and the challenge now for local businesses is to market their products vigorously in Ireland.

''We congratulate the hotels and guest houses which have put such a huge effort into upgrading in the past two years. It is the area's outstanding scenery and the assurance of good accommodation that brings holidaymakers, and tourist operators have to continue building on their efforts to promote Kintyre to the Irish.''