News / Industry unnerved by ferry uncertainty
SHETLAND’S growing tourism sector could suffer a major blow next year if the uncertainty surrounding the new northern isles ferry contract continues for much longer, transport and tourism managers warned on Wednesday.
They said the remaining timescale of less than 10 months to tender for the now separate contracts for the Shetland/Orkney to Aberdeen and the Pentland Firth services was extremely tight.
Current operator of both crossings NorthLink told a meeting of the Shetland external transportation forum that they would not be able to attend the World Travel Market travel fair in London later this year since they had no product to sell.
Director of Promote Shetland, Andy Steven, said he believed the isles tourism sector would take a knock in 2012 and 2013 because established links with tour operators could be severed.
“Tour operators are not thinking about the next year, but about 2013 and the following years. Building these relations takes years, and what is being done here is taking away the continuity and potentially damaging relationships,” he said.
NorthLink’s contract to provide lifeline services to Orkney and Shetland expires at the end of June 2012, but the government has so far given no indication as to the timetable and the fare structure they want to be in operation as of July 2012.
The government has said that it does not want an extension to the current contract, and was confident that a new contract would be in place in time by using a “competitive dialogue” tendering process.
In the circumstances it was “pointless” to go to travel fares because NorthLink had no product to sell, the company’s managing director Bill Davidson said.
“We are very keen to maintain the group tours business, but after taking soundings from a number of tour operators we believe that the potential for different operators on the Pentland Firth and Aberdeen routes combined with the uncertainty as to the Pentland Firth ‘offering’ means we cannot continue to market and sell the current packages.
“We’re discussing the implications of this with Scottish government officials and all parties are committed to doing what is for the best, but we have regretfully concluded that we will suspend taking bookings for the current packages for the 2013 tour group season for both the ‘via Orkney to Shetland’ tours and the Orkney only tours.
“As we don’t know what ‘product’ we will have to sell we also believe there will be little value in us attending the World Travel Market trade fair this year.
“We can sell the islands but not the way to get there,” he said.
He added that the company’s tour operator contingent for the whole of 2012 was fully booked, but the company did not know whether they would operate the route after June that year.
Tour operators have bought into this on “the expectation that it will be alright”, he said.
Ruth Henderson, of seafood trades body Seafood Shetland, added: “It is unnerving to hear all this uncertainty. We must ensure that we have this service, since it is principal for Shetland.”
The meeting agreed that it was for the local transport partnership ZetTrans to lobby the government and also to involve isles MSP Tavish Scott.
In July, Transport Scotland published a notice saying that tendering papers were about to be published.
Government officials hope to have a shortlist of potential companies drawn up by the end of November and then to enter into a “competitive dialogue” which will be concluded with the awarding of the two separate contracts in spring next year. Hand over of the service will be on 5 July 2012.
The government agency said that it was committed to continue with the quality service for the isles and saw no reason why this could not be continued.
Meanwhile it emerged that all three NorthLink vessels, Hjaltland, Hrossey and Hamnavoe, will be out of service for a total of nine weeks in February and March next year.
Each vessel will have to go to dry dock for an extended period of three weeks, because they are now 10 years old.
This could mean that the Shetland service could operate with just one vessel for the whole period as attempts to hire in the CalMac vessel Hebridian Isles are opposed by Orkney, where transport managers fear that operating a smaller vessel on the Pentland route could set a dangerous precedent.
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