Tourism operators in the Western Isles warn a row over the location of a high profile St Kilda visitor centre could wreck the industry's work.

A multi-agency panel are due to meet on Thursday to discuss the fallout after allegations that the rules for selecting the site were changed during the bidding process.

St Kilda cannot sustain the centre itself due to the sheer number of visitors anticipated and the difficulty of reaching the archipelago in rough weather.

Mangersta in Uig, Lewis, came out on top for the proposed tourist attraction after a recommendation by Jura Consultants.

Three Hebridean locations are competing to host the centre and lodged detailed bids based on the demands of the original project brief.

But crucial criteria were changed after the submissions were sent back, with an altered emphasis on landscape, heritage, cultural and historical factors.

The teams promoting two other potential sites - Cleitreval in North Uist and Leverburgh in South Harris are furious and claim the process was unfair.

Harris is understood to have come out bottom of the list and its bid team is angrily demanding that selection panel allow the losing sides to resubmit their applications. The North Uist team also want a fresh start to the process.

The Outer Hebrides Tourism Industry Association (OHTIA) has written to the St Kilda panel with its worries. The letter is expected to be debated at the panel's meeting on Thursday.

Chairman Ian Fordham said: "The OHTIA now has grave concerns that the current situation will divide communities and hence fragment the Outer Hebrides tourism product.

"If that happens, the years of effort by the OHTIA, and its colleagues in the Area Tourism Partnership, to create a unified Outer Hebrides brand will be irretrievably damaged."

Mr Fordham added: "The OHTIA calls on the St Kilda Working Group to find a solution acceptable to all communities and to consider an approach which spreads the investment across various sites, to create a network of visitor attractions

Uisdean Robertson of the North Uist group said it was like entering a contest with the rules without their knowledge.

He said: "We believe the process has gone badly wrong and that there needs to be a halt to the proposed timetable until there is a full and open review of the process."

Western Isles Council, Visit Scotland, development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise, National Trust for Scotland as well as the Gaelic arts body PNE are members of the selection panel.

Each agency needs to express its own preferred location or ratify the consultant's choice.

Western Isles Council will debate the issue at its own tourism committee at the end of this month before going on to its sustainable committee and then the full council in December.