Glasgow's VisitScotland hub to return to Buchanan Street in £200,000 move

Dubbed an iCentre, the tourist facility caused controversy last July when it moved from Buchanan Street to the museum because of its lack of accessiblity.

Now, just one year on, bosses said the iCentre will move at a cost of £200,000 to an unnamed site that is likely to be back on Buchanan Street.

At the same time, the VisitScotland hub in Glasgow Airport will close.

It comes as the organisation is to close almost two thirds of its tourist offices as part of a radical approach to the "information revolution".

The national tourism organisation said two out of three visitors now access information online, while footfall to its information centres has dropped 58 per cent in the past decade.

It plans to cut the number of information centres from 65 to 26 "high impact regional hubs" in locations of greatest visitor demand over the next two years.

Staff will be offered the options of redeployment, retraining or voluntary redundancy.

The centres earmarked for closure include those at Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports, Inveraray, Aberfeldy, Thurso and Braemar.

The 26 centres staying open include those in Glasgow, Edinburgh St Andrews, Inverness, Kirkwall and Lerwick.

The original VisitScotland hub on Buchanan Street was forced to move due to the expansion of Buchanan Galleries.

At the time, Council Nina Baker said of the move to GoMA: "Although technically accessible, it is totally out of sight and for tourists I would think visibility and ease of access is vital. What other world class city, as we aspire to be, would do this?"

A VisitScotland spokesman said: “Our review of the way visitors access information has highlighted the need to have our own premises in Glasgow.

"This winter, the Glasgow iCentre will relocate from its current base within the Gallery of Modern Art to a new, more prominent site in the city centre, to be announced in the coming months.

"Some £200,000 will be invested in the new high impact centre to ensure it meets visitor demands and showcases the very best of what the city and surrounding area has to offer.”

Marc Crothall, Chief Executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, added: "VisitScotland's new broader approach to information provision will mean changes, however it will also make more options available to visitors, ensuring information is delivered in the right place, at the right time in the right way to meet demand.

"Although there will be fewer VisitScotland Information Centres, we know that there will be many more places for visitors to access information across the country, whether this is online through their greatly enhanced digital platforms and partnerships, the ever-expanding network of tourism ambassadors and businesses who provide local advice or through the improved flagship VisitScotland regional travel hubs.

"We also believe that VisitScotland will manage these changes in a sensitive way, ensuring that alternatives are in place to help manage any local concerns."