Why make a conscious choice?
Communities across Scotland own and operate a range of tourism services and experience ready for you to enjoy. By making a conscious choice on your travels, any spend you make will have important benefits that are felt across the host community.Community intiatives are unlike some other toursim providers because they are owned and operated by the communities they serve. Every penny spent with our members is reinvested back into local services, generating immediate and long-lasting benefits for that host community.
Community Tourism is delivered by professionals but also invariably engages volunteers who invest their time with a real passion for their local area, making your experience memorable. These enterprises are highly innovative and entrepreneurial in everything they do.
What happens to the money you spend?
When travelling, any spend contributes to one of Scotland’s most important industries, worth over £11.6 billion for the national economy. You can make a conscious choice to spend with a SCOTO Community Tourism enterprise and in so doing that spend will bring great local benefits which are hugely important to these communities, many of which are remote and rural. These include:
providing much needed jobs and training for local people and helping young people stay in the community
improving the community’s natural capital, enhancing access to it and seeking to address climate change impacts
expanding the local offer, retaining much needed services and providing income streams to sustain other vulnerable activity
conserving assets, developing new cultural activity and keeping local traditions alive
developing and reinforcing the local sense of place and distinctiveness and providing responsible means of access
Share your skills
Don’t be shy… ask if you can volunteer at community gardens if you like to root yourself in nature when you visit a new area.
Support local businesses
Show your respect to local businesses by choosing the local coffee shop and cafes over high street chains.
The money you spend on a night in the hostel or pods goes straight to help local young people do modern apprenticeships in hospitality and the running of the youth project. This is a direct impact, and you can sleep soundly knowing you are making a real difference to the lives of the young people in Callander.
E-news sign up
If you are a visitor and want to know more about being a temporary local, sign up here!