They saw winter income from skiing declining and felt the way forward was to attract large numbers of summer coach parties to the mountain. Yet these tourists are often the quick access, one day, in and out variety, whose visit to the funicular will just be one in a range of attractions on their whistle stop tour of the Highlands.

You know, when people talk about the benefits of tourism, one thing I've heard is how fabulous it is to have tourists in the area and how the relationships between the local and tourists can be used to foster greater understanding between different nationalities- what rubbish! The tourist- host relationship is transitory- these tourists don't stay around long enough to build a relationship! For these tourists, the meeting with a local may be unique but for the resident it's just another one of many superficial relationships they form during the season; for the tourist the area and it's attractions are unique and exciting - for the resident it's just routine.