VMI wrote to Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Transport of the Scottish Government on 20/7/2025 to outline the views of VMI members on the decision to exclude Mull and Iona from the Islands Business Resilience Fund to compensate island businesses for ferry disruption. So far, we are very disappointed that no response has been received.
Dear Fiona
Islands Business Resilience Fund
It’s a while since Visit Mull and Iona (VMI) has been in touch with you, as we patiently wait for the promised new ferries to enter service, to relieve the continual failures of our current ferry service. With none of the Turkish ferries yet arriving, our 2025 season is a repeat of the last two years, with breakdowns and constant redeployment of MV Isle of Mull causing a lack of capacity that has caused a downturn in the number of visitors to the islands.
VMI, like everyone else on our islands, was therefore shocked to hear that businesses based on Mull and Iona are not eligible for the new £4.4 million Islands Business Resilience Fund. How can the very obvious damage to our community and economy, caused by never-ending ferry disruption and chaos, be considered not to merit eligibility for support?
The decision to base support on the arbitrary criteria of an island having more than 15% of ferry cancellations over the last three summer seasons is simplistic in the extreme. It totally fails to recognise and examine the complexity of the damage that continual last minute ferry timetable changes and redeployment have on every aspect of island life. Mull and Iona Ferry committee has demonstrated that in 2025 alone, ferry capacity has been reduced by 22% since March, because MV Isle of Mull was out of service.
Ferry capacity determines how many visitors can book accommodation. 2025 holds the record for people booking accommodation and then cancelling because they cannot book a ferry, so accommodation bookings are down for the third year in a row. Fewer visitors staying in accommodation affects all our hospitality sectors from cafes and retail to tour operators and visitor attractions.
Day visitors are also very important to Mull and Iona’s economy but now even day foot passengers often find that they cannot book a ferry ticket. There is a clear downturn in visitor numbers and income across all our tourism sectors, not always because their ferry was cancelled but because they couldn’t book a ticket on the ferry.
And it’s not just hospitality that is affected, all other sectors on the islands face continual difficulties with incoming and outgoing goods and animals, which impact their ability to operate.
For years, Mull and Iona Ferry Committee warned of the impending crisis looming because of the unreliability of our ageing ferry fleet, and were ignored. At the beginning of the 2023 season they were proved right as the ferry fleet started to fall apart at an alarming rate causing severe disruption to island lives and businesses. Mull and Iona, along with the other Hebridean islands have been paying a high price ever since, as the situation worsens.
Without any economic or social impact study on three years of appalling lack of ferry reliability, how can the Scottish Government or HIE make a fair decision on compensation for Mull and Iona or the other islands that have been excluded?
The Scottish Government need to look again at a fair and equitable way of compensating Mull and Iona, and other islands, for the scandalous years of neglect due to the failure of our ferry fleet; a situation which is still ongoing and will have far-reaching consequences for years to come.
Yours sincerely
Margaret
Margaret Matthew
Acting Chair, Visit Mull and Iona
Destination Marketing Organisation for Mull and Iona
www.visitmullandiona.co.uk
Cc Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands
Rachel Hunter, Director of Enterprise and Community Support, HIE
