Inverclyde Tourist Group – a Voluntary Group Grasps a Tourism Initiative

Isabel Lamb and Isobel McCully, members of the voluntary Inverclyde Tourist Group, spoke with enthusiasm about their group’s activities.

Please click here for the full presentation or read on for a summary of the talk.

The presentation gave the history of the Inverclyde Tourist Group (ITG) explaining how some local people had responded to what they had observed as a gap in the services offered to the cruise liner passengers calling at Greenock. People of all ages with a range of skills and experience became involved. They first set up a stall at the Ocean Terminal in 2002 making local information available to liner passengers and. developed a short local coach tour to showcase the area and encourage people to spend their time in Inverclyde. The group successfully applied for funding from the lottery for Welcome Host training and some basic storage equipment.

There was an awareness that a corporate identity would be useful and uniforms of blue polo shirts were bought by the group members themselves. Since then shirts and tartan body warmers have been provided by Inverclyde Council and Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire and a logo has been commissioned featuring the Cloch Lighthouse.

Inverclyde Tourist Group show off their visitor display
© Inverclyde Tourist Group

While acknowledging Inverclyde’s many problems the Group has been careful to present a positive image of the area, not only to visitors but to local residents also. The local newspaper, the Greenock Telegraph, has responded to this approach and often runs good news stories about the ITG and their activities. A programme of talks to local groups and a project called “Be a Tourist in Your Own Town” has helped to keep the community informed of their work. These have also been opportunities to feedback to the community how highly cruise passengers regard the area and how much it has to offer to visitors.

ITG meet about 15 cruise ships a year, greeting passengers and crew (equally important to the local economy) as they arrive, responding to requests for information about the local area and further afield. The ethos of the group is to make this a memorable day for the visitors and their commitment does not finish until the ship is waved goodbye. Internet access and phone cards are now offered as a further service. From the initial single coach tour, two further local tours are now run - usually a total of six tours on a cruise call day. The feedback shows that tourists appreciate this glimpse of local life presented by local people. The Provost of Inverclyde has been an enthusiastic partner in this venture. The group now finds that a growing number of passengers are discovering about their services on the Internet and are looking to develop this further.

Passengers have a wide range of interests and ask many questions. It was necessary for the group to gather resources and explore what is available: car hire, train, ferry and bus timetables, recreational opportunities (golf, walking, skateboarding, cycling, horse-riding). A resource of clan and family history material has been gathered and some interested members have further developed their knowledge in this area.

ITG has recently been involved in a research project funded by Communities Scotland, Scottish Community Action Research Fund (SCARF). There were two aspects of the research; first of all surveying and visiting heritage centres in other post industrial areas to assess if similar approaches could be viable in Inverclyde and secondly exploring the potential benefits of networking with groups in other cruise ports. Among the findings were that Inverclyde has potential as a short break destination and attractions could include a waterfront walkway with commissioned sculptures and other artefacts reflecting the industrial past; on the networking side many positive contacts were made and consolidated by a two day conference “Cruise Communities: Opportunities and Challenges”.

What next? The group are conscious that it is desirable to keep up to date with current developments in tourism. To this end training is ongoing and the group are also open to encourage voluntary groups in other ports to see the benefits of becoming involved in cruise tourism. ITG hopes to continue to work in partnership with statutory bodies and businesses to make Inverclyde an attractive destination for cruise passengers and other visitors and this links well with regeneration projects like Riverside Inverclyde and other initiatives.

The four years of the group’s life has been a period of learning and expansion and a great deal has been achieved. But there appears to the group to be no limit to what else can be done with vision, hard work and dedication – while having a lot of fun along the way also.

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