A ROSS-SHIRE community has shown that the simple things done well really do matter when it comes to generating extra business in difficult times.
The growing success of Invergordon as a stopping off point for cruises packed with well-heeled passengers is not simply down to geography. Sure, a deep port offering a gateway to the beautiful Highlands has a lot going for it right off the bat. Equally true is the fact that the vast majority of those passengers are very much just passing through, en route to pre-arranged and carefully choreographed bus tours taking them to some of the region's well-trodden tourist magnets.
However, rather than grumble about it, forward-thinking locals have over the years built up a network of volunteer hosts to offer a real Highland welcome to wide-eyed visitors disembarking and looking for something to do. This direct engagement with a potentially enormous market has borne fruit for the town not least thanks to the less celebrated ships' crews who also have a substantial cumulative spending power. They're all potential customers and all potential future ambassadors for the area depending on what sort of welcome and service they get.
In the past, some found they were unable to spend US dollars or Euros in local shops. Again, that has gradually changed: it's all money at the end of the day.
The growing number of impressed visitors prepared to put pen to paper to remark on the warmth of the welcome is an encouraging sign that will doubtless give impetus to plans to develop Easter Ross as a visitor attraction in itself well worth exploring. Increasingly too, the bottom line from visitors is: "We'll be back."
WITH around 9,000 households on Highland housing waiting lists, it perhaps goes without saying that there's a demand that's simply not being met.
Bosses at Albyn Housing Association, which is rooted in Ross-shire, have voiced bitter disappointment that their bid for several projects in the area have been unsuccessful in securing Scottish Government funding through a special fund. It's grim news too for many cramped in unsuitable accommodation or unable to get a foot across the threshold in the first place. While accepting that times are tough and sacrifices need to be made across the board, Albyn chiefs make the very valid point that social housing is more than a roof over the head.
The benefits of decent, affordable accommodation tend to include a lot of positive spin-offs, including better educational opportunities for children. The fact that the house-building programme has now slowed right down is a matter of deep regret at a time when demand is so very buoyant. Albyn haven't given up on coming up with imaginative new ways to pull together financial packages that will make new builds in remoter areas viable. They deserve a fair wind behind them if one of the Highlands' greatest ongoing problems is ever to be resolved.
