SCOTO CIC

Scotland's national infrastructure organisation for community-led tourism.

SCOTO CIC is the Scottish Community Tourism Network launched in 2022.

As a Community Interest Company, SCOTO CIC operates as the national infrastructure organisation for community-led tourism in Scotland. We serve as the national umbrella body that connects, advocates for and empowers grassroots community tourism enterprise. Our goal is to develop and promote community-led tourism as a means to build social, economic, environmental and cultural wealth in each of our communities. We believe that Community Tourism is Community Wealth Building in action.

Everyone can empower communities through tourism. What we choose to do matters; as visitors, as businesses, as communities and as public bodies. Its increasingly important to work together to better understand what matters most in each of our host communities, to ensure we all make the right choices.

We are a self‑funded network: currently, 99% of our income comes from contracts through SCOTO Consulting, with 20% of every contract fee supporting the operation of the SCOTO Network and the provision of resources.

What is community tourism?

It’s a question many people ask – and often because they like the sound of it and want to know more!

For SCOTO, which is working at a policy and grassroots level across Scotland, community tourism focuses on people, places and purpose.

Community led tourism is where a community enterprise or geographic community is directly involved in shaping and managing the tourism offers in their area and ensuring tourism provides meaningful benefits locally.

Join the Network today!

FIND OUT HOW

The strength of SCOTO CIC is that we are a network. And the strength of the SCOTO Network lies in the sharing of information and inspiring each other. Additionally, we provide various benefits to our SCOTO Enterprises, and if you're interested in championing this initiative, why not become a SCOTO Supporter?

Join

SCOTO Monthly Gatherings

Where we talk

Join our monthly online gatherings as we explore the topics that matter most to community-led tourism. These informal sessions are a chance to share ideas, experiences and inspiration with others throughout the SCOTO Network.

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Take time to PRESS PAUSE®

Do you feel tourism just happens to your community?

Do you have a community-led tourism idea that you would like to explore? Are you keen to see tourism help your community become an even better place to live, work and visit? Sign up for a SCOTO Press Pause® facilitated workshop and action plan.

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Community Tourism Day 2026

Celebrating Community Tourism

On the 25 April 2026 we celebrated the second Community Tourism Day - read and listen to the messages, blogs and podcasts publised on the day!

Community Tourism Day 26

Our Social Impact

CIC 34 Social Impact Reporting

As a Community Interest Company each year we prepare and submit a social impact report as part of our accounting processes. Our reports set out what we have progressed under each of our seven approved CIC activities and the community benefit that has been achieved.

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Case Studies

What do others do?

The strength of the SCOTO Network lies in the sharing of information and inspiring each other. We have a variety of case studies from across Scotland which explore everything from community run Visitor Information Centres to toilets!

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UK Community Tourism Alliance

Working Together

Learn more about the creation of a UK-wide partnership working to establish a national voice for community tourism.

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How can we empower communities through tourism?

Many communities across the country feel that tourism happens to them rather than with them. But if their interests as a host community come to the fore and time is taken to understand what matters locally a very different dynamic can develop.

Visitors always have choices they can make, as do businesses, local residents and agency partners. And we can all seek to make better, more conscious choices that deliver what we want, but in so doing also deliver meaningful local benefits which empower Scotland’s communities through tourism.

For a visitor, it’s simple to ask, 'What can we do in your community?' But a bigger, more impactful question would be What can we do for your community?

This is a simple question that businesses and agency partners can also ask as choices are made on strategy, investment, supply chains, employment and sponsorship.

And at the very grass roots level this is a question each of us as an individual can ask at home in our own communities. What can I do for my local community to make it an even better place to live, work and visit? What skills can I offer? What time do I have? Could I become a local trustee? Could I spend few hours stewarding at a local event? Could I do a shift at the local information hub?

SCOTO is seeking to reframe the dynamics of tourism and place each individual host community’s interests at the heart of all tourism choices and decision-making.

How can SCOTO Help?

At SCOTO, our work revolves around seven key activities

Our first year has surpassed all expectations! See the highlights of our impact here.

Forum & Networking

Providing a forum for networking and connecting with peers engaged in community led tourism

Resources

Providing an online learning and development resources for community led tourism

Programmes

Providing programmes of support for community led tourism including grants

Advocacy

Providing leadership that strengthens the representation of community led tourism initiatives in strategy, policy and delivery.

Promotion

Providing a promotional platform, targeting conscious consumers and ethical travelers.

Data

Gatheing data and intelligence about community led tourism in Scotland

Services

Undertake contracts and services to grow and develop community tourism across Scotland

From tourist to temporary local: Fight to make Scottish tourism fair

STV's Scotland Tonight programme, 9 June 2023

A focus on visitors

Be a temporary local

We have created a dedicated website for visitors to unleash their inner local, as we invite them to be inspired to embrace the local community spirit on their travels and to give something simple back that will make the community an even better place to live, work and visit.

Visit Be Local Website

SCOTO was established in April 2022 believing in:

Community Wealth Building

Community tourism can support economic and social growth and grow resilient communities that are then equipped to innovate and optimise further opportunities for development and investment. Read how our network uses community tourism as a tool for community wealth building.

Community Wealth Building

Responsible Tourism

Community tourism underpins the concepts of sustainable and responsible tourism delivering more than economic return with due consideration to the social and environmental as well as economic impacts that tourism brings

Place Making

Community tourism is place-orientated and grassroots led and therefore integrates its development with other community priorities

Getting Involved

Be part of it

We welcome individuals, community enterprises and supporters to get in touch and find out more about the SCOTO Network, or to simply ask us for info. Discover more about SCOTO below:

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