News / Bid submitted to buy tourist office from council
THE FUTURE of Lerwick’s tourist office will be discussed behind closed doors at a council meeting next week.
A local bid has been submitted to buy the building outright, Shetland Tourism Association (STA) chairwoman Amanda Hawick has told Shetland News.
The STA has also made a bid to lease the building – but Hawick said the organisation will withdraw that if the bid to buy it is successful.
She said the STA was “fairly confident” in the offer to buy the Market Cross building, which would see it continue to be run as a tourist office.
However, she said she could not comment on the identity of the bidder due to a confidentiality agreement.
Members of the policy and resources committee are set to consider the future of the building at their meeting on Monday – though this item will be heard in private.
It is then expected to go before the full council later this month, again behind closed doors.
A petition aimed at saving the tourist office, one of the busiest in Scotland, was signed more than 4,100 times last month.
Hawick said the strength of response to the petition was a “clear indication” that people wanted to see it remain open.
The closure of the TSB bank, around the corner from the Market Cross tourist office, has lead some to speculate locally that the STA could take on that building if its bid was unsuccessful.
But Hawick said that was “a new one on me”, and that the STA was fully focused on the tourist centre.
The council had invited offers over £200,000 for the building’s sale, or offers over £20,000 per annum for a lease.
VisitScotland is set to vacate the building in November as part of a nationwide closure of its iCentres.
Recent figures showed that the Lerwick office had the highest income of all iCentres in Scotland in 2023/24 after Edinburgh.
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