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National Trust to cut jobs as visitor numbers decline and losses rise

IT IS one of Scotland’s largest landowners and controls prime tourist sites from Culzean Castle to the Culloden battlefield. But falling visitor numbers and growing losses are threatening a new crisis at the National Trust for Scotland.

Lacklustre advertising and promotion hit the organisation, which had already been caught out by the slump in visitor numbers after 11 September, 2001, observers said yesterday. At the same time, the NTS has suffered from overstaffing dating back to a 1999 reorganisation.

The trust is now planning to shed almost one in six of its 500 staff in an attempt to save 3 million. Officials said up to 80 job losses were necessary for a “sustainable future”.

The turmoil follows last year’s sudden departure of chief executive Robin Pellew, who warned the trust faced some “very tough decisions”. Mr Pellew’s replacement is Mark Adderley, a former director of human resources at Scottish Water.

Founded in 1931, the NTS has 128 properties covering 188,000 acres, and its membership grew to a healthy 300,000 last year. Its properties range from St Kilda, a World Heritage Site, to Robert Burns’s birthplace in Ayrshire, where it is currently overseeing a 17 million redevelopment.

The state agency Historic Scotland reported a 6 per cent rise in admissions at its 300 sites this year, which include the flagship Edinburgh and Stirling castles as well as more remote spots.

But figures at the National Trust showed a drop in the number of visitors of 11,000, and an annual loss of 1.2 million in 2006-7. The trust is now said to be carrying a cumulative deficit of 3 million.

NTS currently gets around 1.7 million visitors each year to its properties, but numbers have stagnated despite various proposals, such as “noisy weekends” to pull in more families.

While visitors at Historic Scotland’s Doune Castle, made famous by its appearance in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, went up by 28 per cent to 35,000, at the National Trust’s Crathes Castle, near Aberdeen, they went down from 100,000 to 74,129 over the year to 2006.

Professor David Walker, one of Scotland’s leading architectural historians, was a member of the trust’s council.

He singled out a working practices review at the trust in 1999 as a major source of the problems. It gave more power to the regions to make their own hiring decisions, and resulted in an “explosion of jobs”, he said.

“That created problems which the present management team has now to address,” he added.

One major donor to the trust, who asked not to be named, echoed the concern that there was overstaffing in the organisation, saying: “We all knew they were overstaffed.”

Prof Walker blamed both the 11 September, 2001 attacks and the UK foot-and-mouth epidemic of that year for a drop in visitor numbers.

“Getting visitor numbers up again has not proved easy. The promotion could be better,” he said. “Also, people are being discouraged from using their motor cars. People don’t motor to the same extent at the weekend that they did.”

A statement yesterday on the trust’s website said: “The Trust aims to reduce its annual costs by approximately 3 million over the next three years. As staff costs represent approximately 50 per cent of total costs, this will reduce the overall staffing numbers. Properties are open as normal as the Trust acts to secure its future sustainability.” Culzean Castle

Stunning castle on the south Ayrshire coast draws 200,000 visitors a year. It came sixth in a list of Scotland’s top ten tourist draws compiled by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. The NTS flagship offers everything from high-class accommodation to adopt-a-deer schemes. The Kennedy family donated Culzean to the trust in 1945 and asked that the top floor be kept for General Eisenhower as a thank you from the people of Scotland. The Eisenhower Suite costs 375 a night. Crathes Castle

Famous for its fairytale turrets and Jacobean painted ceilings, but a 2006 survey showed visitor numbers were down 26 per cent. The NTS hopes sunshine and a Sugababes concert this summer will boost figures. Culloden

The graveyard of the Jacobite cause is to get a 10 million state-of-the-art tourist centre. Visitors will be assigned a character from the 1745 rising to follow through the battle in a so-called “immersion theatre”.

More info @ http://www.nts.org.uk
http://www.castles.org/chatelaine/crathes.htm