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< Back to '14th June 2023' briefing

June 13, 2023

Try the local route

The summer season for Scotland’s tourism industry is well underway and, as ever, the best known tourist hotspots will be hooching with visitors. But this year, there’s a call for holiday makers to adopt a different approach to their visit. If they could just slow down, take time to get to know the locals and make a connection with the communities they visit, they would be assured of a much richer experience. In fact SCOTO, the community led tourism network, argues that by making the conscious choice to visit communities in this way, it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

SCOTO

Find places throughout Scotland to ‘Stay, Eat, Buy, Do, Enjoy’ and receive a real community welcome.

Explore our map of Scotland to discover where you can meet proud and passionate locals and be welcomed into our world.

Scotland is a small but diverse country – which is a huge part of its appeal – and Community Tourism enterprises are popping up all across the map from Unst on Shetland, to Newcastleton on the English border, and from Angus on the east coast to virtually every island on the west coast – and everywhere in between.

To inspire conscious travel to each of these amazing places you can search under four regions of Scotland – and six different types of visitor offer. And do come back again as we are adding new places all the time as our network grows and expands.

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.

SCOTO members are unlike other tourism 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.