A #400,000 project to provide new year-round leisure facilities near
Dunoon marks the beginning of Cowal's regeneration as a tourist centre,
and the change in fortunes the local community has been awaiting since
the US Navy quit the Holy Loch last March.
This was the claim made yesterday by the chief executive of Argyll and
the Islands Enterprise, Mr David McIntyre, as he unveiled details of the
Local Enterprise Company's #187,500 grant and loan package to the
project.
This will see the completion next month of the leisure complex
overlooking the Holy Loch which will house a swimming pool, spa bath,
sauna suite, solarium, and mini-gym to serve the self-catering
accommodation provided by owners, Hafton Holiday Lodges.
Hafton House will be open to the public all year round and will
increase existing employment at the centre by nine jobs to 25. Hafton
says it is the first phase of a #5m five-year plan, to develop the
centre as a major holiday complex, offering high quality hotel
accommodation and water-based activities as well as self-catering
lodges, bars, and restaurants.
Managing director Robert Dodds said yesterday: ''Holidaymakers now
expect such leisure facilities as a matter of course, and our advance
bookings at the end of January for the 1993 season are nearly double
what they were for 1991. We are now looking for 11,000 visitors, who
will put more than #4m into the local economy between Easter and the end
of October.''
Mr McIntyre added: ''This project is firm evidence of our commitment
to developing the Cowal economy and follows our recent initiative to
identify opportunities for improving local hotels.
The Cowal Action Plan has identified tourism as a major plank in the
economic regeneration of the area, and this project, to upgrade
facilities for local people and visitors alike, secures the jobs of the
present workforce as well as creating new seasonal and year-round
employment.''
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