News / Promote Shetland contract under review
THE FUTURE of Promote Shetland, the organisation contracted to attract tourists and new residents to the islands, will be determined this autumn ahead of its contract expiring in March 2017.
Promote Shetland was first created seven years ago and its contract with Shetland Islands Council has been set at £394,000 a year since 2012/13, with the current arrangement running until next spring.
While a “council-inspired and owned concept”, Promote Shetland technically operates as a branch of Shetland Amenity Trust, which won the previous tendering exercises in 2009 and 2013.
Members of the local authority’s development committee agreed on Monday to pare down a “long list” of 12 options to five different options, four of which would see an outsourced service continue in some form.
With continued pressure on council budgets amid continued national public spending cutbacks, it is unclear whether SIC councillors have an appetite to reduce the “wholly discretionary” budget.
A report from economic development manager Douglas Irvine highlights a need to “consider how Shetland should be promoted to help achieve economic success and social stability for the next 10 years”.
The report refers to the challenges presented by Shetland’s remoteness (which can also be its “unique selling point and promotional opportunity”), skills shortages, an ageing population, a “very narrow” economic base and a “fragmented” approach to the development of business.
Irvine identifies a need to generate a better understanding of “where the public sector’s role begins and ends”.
“A real danger exists that, by continuing to concentrate Shetland’s promotional effort largely into a single delivery channel, which has insufficient resources to meet all our promotional needs, we are getting further away from the shared approach, across organisations and businesses, that is essential to make significant progress,” his report states.
“Promoting Shetland should be the shared responsibility of the whole Shetland community, with public resources being directed at the general promotion of Shetland and partnership working with industry, public services and the third sector to promote what they do and to celebrate the best of what Shetland has to offer on the back of the general Shetland message.”
A further report on the five options remaining on the table – the existing arrangement; various services involving community engagement, and a “do nothing” option – will follow by late summer.
Committee chairman Alastair Cooper told Shetland News he felt there needed to be a “greater rapport” between the public and private sector in promoting what Shetland has to offer.
“We will continue to promote Shetland,” he said. “We need to have greater clarity on who is doing what. Us and industry need to work together to make sure we’re not duplicating effort, but at the same time make sure we’re on message with one another.”
Cooper praised Promote Shetland team of Andy Steven and Misa Hay for doing a “very good job with the limited resources they have”.
He added: “There’s no criticism of Promote Shetland at all – they’ve done exactly what the council wanted them to do for the period of that contract. It’s not about who’s doing it, it’s about what we’re going to do, and what money [is available].
“There’s always pressure on money, but we’ve not taken any decision to reduce it by X, Y or Z.
“We have to decide in the autumn and get it out to tender so that we have a contract in place when the time comes. It may be the existing ones will win that, but we can’t presume at this stage.”
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