Visitor management: Scotland's action plan

Organisations across Scotland work together to deliver a collaborative approach to visitor management.

In this section:

1. Strategy steering group and workstreams
2. Marketing activity
3. Industry guide
4. Infrastructure and resource
5. Management at key hotspots
6. Regional projects
7. Virtual summits

1. Strategy steering group and workstreams

Our coordinated Scotland-wide strategic approach educates key audiences to enjoy our countryside responsibly. It pulls together the current and planned actions into a cohesive and aligned direction of travel.

We bundled this in a vision of how the visitor experience will develop over a 10-year period. An action log records progress against our four strategy pillars:

1. Educating our current and future visitors
2. Investing in Scotland’s current and future visitor management infrastructure and services
3. Delivering a joined up and cohesive action plan across Scotland
4. Becoming and remaining a world leader in visitor management

The strategy and its implementation is overseen by the Strategy Steering Group. VisitScotland chairs it. Other members are:

• NatureScot
• Cairngorms National Park Authority
• Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park
• Forestry & Land Scotland
• Highland Council
• Police Scotland
• Scottish Government (tourism)
• Transport Scotland

There are also three working groups which feed into the coordination subgroup. We established these to:

• Look at topic areas which are prevalent in the action log
• Cover camping and campervan, transport and digital

2. Marketing activity

We're working with partner organisations to deliver a coordinated approach to:

1. Responsible tourism marketing
2. Education activity

Building on activity in previous years, we delivered a campaign named Keep Scotland Unspoiled.

• More information about Keep Scotland Unspoiled

Keep Scotland Unspoiled used social media, local radio and digital marketing. It aimed to educate, inspire and inform people about issues such as:

• Water safety, fire safety, dog control
• The need to adhere to the Scottish Outdoor Access Code

We used humour to convey our key messaging. We also ensured we set a more positive tone around the need to behave responsibly when visiting outdoor places.

As part of our efforts this year to reach younger audiences, we also worked with some of Scotland’s top travel influencers. They created content for their channels themed around the key topics.

3. Industry guide

The partnership worked together to create a dedicated guide with films, images, content and more. The tourism industry (business and stakeholders) can use it across their own social media activity and marketing.

• Check out our responsible visitor guide
• Read our responsible tourism page

Also check out our responsible tourism imagery on a wide range of important topics, including:

• Water safety
• Camping
• Motorhoming
• Litter
• Responsible dog walking
• Outdoor access
• Fire safety

4. Infrastructure and resource

Agencies and local authorities are working in partnership to address the issues on the ground. This covers long term strategic planning and permanent infrastructure developments alongside immediate measures. These include temporary infrastructure and the provision of additional rangers.

Specific plans and initiatives on which our partners took the lead include:

Before our current approach, we already started to deliver the following fund with Scottish Government:

• Explore the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund

It addresses the pressures on infrastructure and negative impacts on local communities due to a rise in visitors to these areas. 24 strategic tourism infrastructure development plans have also been developed across rural Scotland. These will also help inform the priorities for the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund over the next three to five years.

5. Management at key hotspots

Our partner agencies make visitor experiences as enjoyable and positive as possible with a focus on key hotspots. In 2022, the same approach was adopted in the following locations:

• North Coast 500
• Arisaig & Morar
• Cairngorms National Park
• Highland Perthshire
• Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park
• Galloway Forest Park
• Loch Ken
• Pentland Hills Regional Park
• The East Lothian Coastline

These parts of Scotland are facing visitor management challenges. So, they put measures in place to ensure those visiting enjoy their time but leave no trace. The areas are diverse and include everything from beaches, forestry, lochs and some of Scotland’s highest mountains. Visitors experienced a range of local improvements including:

• Increased infrastructure and signage
• Friendly, knowledgeable rangers and / or staff on hand to answer any questions or give words of advice

6. Regional projects

There is a range of projects being undertaken by partners across the country. They particularly use technology to tackle visitor management challenges and assist visitors. These include:

7. Virtual summits

Cabinet Secretaries have convened several visitor management summits. The first summit identified the issues and established the need for a strategy and steering group. Follow up have summits checked on the strategy progress. A wide range of partners and stakeholders across Scotland attended these.

• View our video recording of the summit from March 2021
• Read our summary of the summit from October 2021