Argyll and the Islands Enterprise (AIE) is committing over £100,000 to the development of a hi-tech visitor orientation and tourist information centre in the village of Inveraray.

AIE has awarded the Area Tourist Board (Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and the Trossachs Tourist Board) a financial package totalling £105,712 towards the £178,000 project.  Funding from AIE includes money from the European-funded HIE Activity programme

Inveraray's existing tourist information centre is situated in the village's former courthouse - a Grade A listed building.  With consent from Historic Scotland the entire ground floor of the building is set to undergo a major revamp to house the new information and orientation centre. 

The redevelopment will see the amount of floor space for the tourist information centre more than doubling in size to cope with existing and future visitor numbers.  Computers and interactive, graphic and film displays will be installed to help visitors find out more about the village and the wider Argyll area.

Chief executive of AIE, Ken Abernethy said: "Tourism is one of Argyll and the Islands' main economic drivers.  It is extremely important that we have the facilities in place to encourage more visitors to come to the area and to stay here longer."

The Area Tourist Board has upgraded several of its tourist information centres recently including the award-winning Isle of Bute Discovery Centre.  Commenting on the latest project, Area Tourist Board chief executive James Fraser said: "We are delighted to receive the backing of AIE and Argyll and Bute Council for this important project.  It will enable us to showcase Inveraray and the wider Argyll area more effectively to hundreds of thousands of visitors."

Inveraray's new-look visitor information centre will also house an Argyll and Bute Council (ABC) service point for the benefit of the wider community.  ABC has contributed £54,755 towards the cost of the project.  The service point will also display an inter-active touch screen, detailing the range of development assistance available to the industry from AIE.

ABC Convener Councillor William Petrie - who is also chair of the Area Tourist Board - said: "We are delighted to be working in partnership to provide an improved working environment for our employees and an extension and improvement to the services we provide to the public in Inveraray.

"We hope to eventually further extend the number of services provided there to mirror the immense success of the service points on Islay, Jura and Colonsay."