Moray councillors this week agreed to create a tourism think tank to identify the best way of promoting Moray as a tourist destination.

The move follows an earlier decision by the council to reduce the amount of money it gives to national tourism body VisitScotland.

The decision to cut the money given to VisitScotland from £155,000 to £105,000 will see Moray's two page feature in the organisation's main publications disappear.

It will also rebrand its holiday guide and website as Aberdeen City and Shire, instead of Aberdeen and Grampian Highlands.

VisitScotland will continue to operate the four tourist information centres (TIC) at Elgin, Forres, Dufftown and Tomintoul for 2007-08.

However, the council's move towards a more Moray-led tourism promotion philosophy has already seen discussions take place and a community steering group formed in Tomintoul which will ultimately oversee the future operation of the TIC. Similar preliminary discussions have already taken place in Dufftown and the council intends to review the situation in Forres and Elgin.

The council's total direct spend on tourism will still be £155,000, with the outstanding £50,000 allocated to a range of projects in conjunction with community partners, members of the environmental services committee were told on Wednesday.

The council will also use £10,000 of that budget to carry out a study of the accommodation sector across Moray.

Councillor Allan Wright (Heldon and Laich), committee chairman, said: "Tourism is an integral and key part of the overall economic development of Moray."

Tourism has the potential to create a lot of jobs, said Councillor Gordon McDonald (Buckie), however, he claimed a clear tourism strategy was lacking in the east of Moray with no tourist information centres.

He also questioned why the tourism budget within Moray Council was being progressively reduced each year.

Donald Lunan, planning and development manager, told members there had been a modest cut to the tourism budget last year, although the reduction this year of around £16,000 was more substantial. However, prior to those cuts, he said the local tourism budget had been increasing by around 2% each year.

He said that aside from the four main TICs there was a network of 11 neighbourhood information centres, operated in conjunction with private sector and community partners, which includes one in Cullen.

And environmental services director, Bob Stewart, told the committee that while the direct tourism budget was £155,000, the council expenditure on the maintenance of parks and leisure facilities could also be seen as tourist-related.

Given the VisitScotland decision to remove much of its Moray focus, Councillor Pearl Paul (Speyside-Glenlivet) said the council had to look closely at promoting the area through literature and websites.

"We have to get our act together and put something together so we can attract people to Moray. We can package Moray as a whole rather than a small part of Aberdeen and the Grampian Highlands," she said.

The council has already approved £22,000 for a number of local events and projects. These include £1,500 to the Picnic with the Picts historical event in Burghead, £1,360 for Dufftown 2000 promotional leaflets, £8,830 for the two day Moray Winter Festival, £1,300 for an Elgin guide and town trails, £3,000 for an Aberlour visitors guide and £5,500 for a study into the development of ancestral tourism.

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