Tap into tourism

Tourism is a resourceful way for Scotland’s towns to bring in additional spend, support business viability, celebrate our culture and heritage and animate our town centres.  It can also help the community tackle social isolation, increase the viability of local services and facilities, provide living wage jobs and retain young people.

Prior to the pandemic there was a strong focus on tourism growth and success was measured by footfall, bed nights and spend. However, increasingly there has been a global refocus on tourism being a facilitator of change, with a shift from pursuing sustainable tourism which focuses on reducing harm and maintaining the status quo to regenerative tourism which actively works to restore, renew and improve the environment and local communities.

SCOTO CIC is Scotland’s national infrastructure organisation for community led tourism and advocate for regenerative tourism policy and practice.

Community Led Tourism

Community led tourism, is not new but it is gaining significant traction as more and more communities across Scotland acquire assets and are providing visitor services, facilities and experiences.  Scotland’s community empowerment legislation is world leading and has been further boosted with the landmark Community Wealth Building Act 2026.

Communities are increasingly stepping in where the public sector step back faced by unprecedented financial pressures.  Much needed local services and facilities are being cut back and often closed – toilets, visitor information, paths, transport, libraries and local hubs and halls.  Meanwhile communities are recognising the absolute need to provide these services to ensure not just our local but also our visitors’ needs are met and the overall Scottish visitor experience is the best it can be in their community.  Communities are seeing the opportunity to take over these services and be innovative in making these viable alongside other enterprising activity, and as a prime means to grow local social, environmental, cultural and economic wealth.

Browse examples of community led tourism in action here, including:

Community Led Destination Development, Management and Promotion

A specific area where Scotland is leading the way is in community led destination development, management and promotion where host communities are being empowered to ensure tourism no longer happens to them and is co-created with community interests to the fore.

‘Tourism happens to us’ was the most resounding comment heard by SCOTO following engagement with over 420 community groups and organisations in 2023. Triggering the development of an innovative programme, SCOTO Press Pause© facilitates local conversations with the community and businesses about solutions and different approaches to tourism in their area.

Many of our towns and villages have undertaken community action planning and/or local place planning. Through extensive engagement these communities have identified the key issues they want to address in their communities and have spatial plans and prioritised actions over 3 – 5 year periods. What often isn’t understood is that tourism can be a means to an end and support the realisation of these priority themes.

SCOTO Press Pause® empowers these and other communities to explore their destination competence and to better understand their sense of place as the basis for local place branding, and how they are presented to the outside world.

Browse examples of communities who have undertaken Press Pause® here, including:

Reach out to SCOTO to find out more about SCOTO Press Pause® and how this could support your town and community

Join the SCOTO network – its free for individuals and there are numerous opportunities to engage, tap into resources and meet peers. Whatever is on your mind, it’s also on someone else’s mind and nothing beats peer to peer learning and support.

The collective power and versatility of Scotland’s improvement districts cannot be underplayed. The Tourism Business Improvement Districts which exist across the country are fantastic examples of how the BID model can be shaped to suit its area’s needs.

Rather than operating within the boundaries of a town or city centre – as BIDs more traditionally do – these operate within broader geographic areas, pulling together businesses with a direct interest in the visitor industry. They allow them to work together for the broader good – promoting their place and attracting visitors from across the world.

Specific Tourism BIDs – and those where tourism is a key part of their area’s economy –  play a pivotal role in boosting tourism by creating vibrant destinations that cater to the modern traveller, driving economic growth along the way.

The transformative power of local leadership and collaboration in creating vibrant, visitor-friendly destinations is demonstrated by BIDs across the country. Through strategic investments in infrastructure, marketing, and event programming, these BIDs have turned their regions into thriving visitor hubs that celebrate the unique charm of Scotland’s towns and natural landscapes.

See what some of our BIDs are doing with local communities to create visitor destinations below:

Go Tweed Valley
Visit Loch Ness Inverness
BID4Oban
Discover Lanark
Isle of Bute

Riding the wave of national cycling interest

Big sporting events don’t just belong to the cities that host them. When international events bring an influx of people with a specific interest to a place – like the UCI Cycling World Championships did and the Tour de France will do in Scotland – it presents an opportunity. The question is: how do you make sure your town or region is ready to realise that opportunity?

The Scottish Borders offers a compelling answer. Rather than waiting for the spotlight to arrive, the region has actively built its own cycling identity, at first in line with the UCI Cycling World Championships, known as Tour O The Borders, or ‘Touro’ for short. 

What is Tour o the Borders?

Touro is a closed-road cycling sportive based in Peebles, taking riders through some of the most spectacular – and challenging – terrain the Borders has to offer. And it’s more than just a race; it’s a community event, a tourism draw, and a demonstration of what joined-up thinking between the public and private sector can achieve.

The event has been deliberately designed to capitalise on the growing interest in cycling – and cycling fans coming to Scotland for other major events. With major national and international events generating huge public enthusiasm, Touro gives people a chance to experience that same thrill – on the same kind of roads, in an equally stunning setting.

Making it happen – the effort behind the event

Closed-road events take a lot of time and effort, from various parties. Getting traffic-free routes across the Scottish Borders requires significant coordination – with Scottish Borders Council, Police Scotland, and communities along the route all having a role to play. That level of public sector engagement takes time and trust to build, but it’s central to what makes Touro work. Without it, the event simply wouldn’t exist, and the independent research backs this up: the majority of participants said they would be unlikely, or would definitely not, take part if the event were held on open roads .

The region’s proactive approach to cycling strategy has been key. Having a clear, long-term commitment to cycling infrastructure and events creates the conditions for something like Touro to thrive.

A place for local businesses

One of Touro’s real strengths is how it weaves local businesses into the experience. Feed stations along the route are a showcase for local produce and a direct economic opportunity for businesses in some of the more rural parts of the Borders. The event village does the same, giving traders and producers a ready-made audience of enthusiastic participants and supporters.

The numbers speak for themselves. An independent economic impact assessment found that Touro contributed more than £755,000 to the Borders economy, with over 2,200 participants taking part – the majority of whom had travelled from outside the local area and stayed overnight, meaning that spend circulated through hotels, B&Bs, cafés, and shops across the region.

Ensuring accessibility

Alongside the main route, the ‘Le Petit Touro’ option offers a shorter, all-ability alternative, making sure the event is welcoming to a wider range of riders, not just seasoned cyclists. That’s good for participation numbers, good for the community atmosphere, and good for the tourism case.

Takeaways…

The principle is straightforward: identify where national or international interest in a sport or activity is growing, look honestly at what your area has to offer, and build something that allows people to experience it. The keys to Touro’s success are entirely transferable: multi-agency collaboration, community buy-in, local business integration, and a clear eye on the economic opportunity. Find out more the event at tourotheborders.com.

Kirkwall has a busy, bustling, historic town centre: no more so than in the summer, when over 140 cruise ships land up to 5,000 people at a time: equivalent to over half the town’s population. It’s a nice problem to have, of course, but one that needs to be managed to avoid the town centre being overwhelmed – and to make sure that the town gets as much from each cruise as it can, including businesses which might not directly benefit.

Over the last decade, key partners have collaborated closely to make sure that Kirkwall benefits as much as possible from the daily influx of visitors throughout the summer. Local tourism businesses and transport operators, Orkney Islands Council, Kirkwall Business Improvement District (BID), VisitScotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Natural Heritage and cruise companies – all have co-operated to create one of the best cruise destination management operations in the world, with ship-to-shore transport and infrastructure, visitor activities and information for businesses.

Since 2018, collaboration has been through the partnership body Destination Orkney, the local destination management organisation which has also developed a 10 year tourism strategy for the period 2020-2030.

The website Cruise Orkney works as a hub of information for local businesses, the tourism industry and cruise operators. Many of Kirkwall’s high street businesses are “cruise-ready”: they know what visitors want, and are very active in providing that. New initiatives like the Kirkwall Gift Card, developed by Kirkwall BID, have helped other high street shops who maybe benefited less from the cruise trade. The local authority has been proactive in improving the high street environment by securing investment in historic buildings and the public realm. And VisitScotland are helping to support winter festivals as a way to generate more trade and activity during the quieter winter months.