Tourists and visitors on Inverness’s hop-on hop-off bus service could become Highland Council’s latest money maker.
Council leaders said “an influx of tourists” expected to visit Inverness this year can help generate additional revenue for the council.
It comes off the back of the council’s landmark new deal to take over Inverness based-D&E Coaches Highland operation.
The City Sightseeing bus service has been operated by D&E Coaches for a number of years and is now under council control.
How will it ease council debts?
D&E Coaches, which is now owned by Highland Council, operates the Inverness City Sightseeing bus service on top of their current services.
These include managing a fleet of over 60 vehicles and providing essential travel for children getting to and from school across the Highlands.
The council cited an £8 million increase in costs to hire private buses for school runs which first gave councillors the idea to consider buying D&E.
Councillors involved in the takeover have made it clear the rising costs were “not sustainable for the public purse”.
As a result of the new deal, all of the money the Inverness City Sightseeing franchise generated for D&E will now go into Highland Council’s revenue pot.
Council leader Raymond Bremner said: “The council is always looking at ways to create new revenue.”
He added “time will tell” what the council will do with the city-hopper experience.
What can we expect from the City Sightseeing Buses in the future?
At the moment, council leaders have reiterated it will be “business as usual” for D&E coaches’ day to day operations.
This includes the City Sightseeing experience, which ex-owner Donald Mathieson first set up back in 2021.
However, Chair of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee Ken Gowans hinted at making use of the soon-to-be reopened Inverness Castle.
He said: “It may well be that we expand that service depending on demand.
“We’ve got a lot of things happening in Inverness, we’ve got the castle coming up this year.
“So with the influx of tourists we expect to see with that – there is plenty of opportunity so watch this space.”
Where does a City Sightseeing bus visit?
For anyone who hasn’t been on an open-top tour of Inverness in a while, the route has remained largely unchanged.
The service started with two routes, covering both the west and east of the city.
However the eastern route, which took travellers up to Culloden Battlefield and along Stadium Road, has since been stopped.
A 24-hour ticket for the circular route that visits Loch Ness is £12 for adults and £6 for children.
Raymond Bremner said: “By finding new ways of creating income, we have the ability to alleviate the pressures on making savings to keep services going at the council.”
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