The first time I knowingly came across Community Led Tourism was in 2023 at Linlithgow Canal Centre, where I met Carron and Di as part of their road show around Scotland spotlighting community tourism. SCOTO network had just newly joined the Scottish Community Alliance (SCA) coalition. It made total sense to me that far from the soulless and extractive model of tourism that most people will have experienced, this was about harnessing the offer of the amazing, diverse initiatives that communities bring- providing insights that only those communities themselves can tell. It felt like a bit of a light bulb moment to be honest, and a gift to any policy makers thinking about how local Community Wealth Building actually works in practice.
Since then, SCA has supported around 18 community learning exchanges to share knowledge from groups across Scotland, who are taking community led tourism approaches to animate local partnerships for sustainability and resilience. Here’s a link to some of the most recent from Montrose in February 2025, held alongside SCOTO’s third network conference.
Community Led Tourism exchanges - Scottish Community Alliance
East Haven Together community owned public toilets stood out to me- their tenacity in taking the toilets from a ‘no go’ area- to a pristine place that spurred funding for cycle paths linked to Arbroath and Montrose. The toilets not only host local artists work but generate income through public donations to support the upkeep and invest in community activity. Their work is commendable!
These community practices bring added value to all tourism players and activity ensuring our people and places are better off as a consequence, in ways that matter to that specific community. It shifts the power imbalance from communities being the passive recipients of tourism to communities providing, leading and promoting their own visitor facing services- that bring investment and benefits to their destination and the people who live there. Communities should be recognised as equal partners in the tourism industry, particularly in their unique position to manage and develop the visitor economy in Scotland- which is well placed to empower communities to own and control buildings and land, engage in place planning and environmental protection.
Community Led Tourism plays such an important role in so many aspects of how our communities operate and sustain themselves- particularly in challenging times. I’d urge any local group or network – whether they be operating around Arts & Culture, as a Village Hall, Development Trust, Social Enterprise, a Community Transport Provider, Community Woodland or all of the above to Press Pause, get in touch with SCOTO to think about how you can make community led tourism work for the benefit of your community.
