SENScot (Social Enterprise Network Scotland) and Creetown Initiative will be providing direct support to the communities of Brechin, in Angus, and Girvan, in South Ayrshire, to develop their tourism offer and put community at the heart of the decision making process.
2020 has been a catastrophic year for the Scottish tourism industry and, with many businesses struggling, we have seen communities across the country come together to provide support to one another and take a lead in local decision making.
This community led tourism approach puts local people at the centre of the decision-making process to produce benefits for the whole community – including allowing local businesses to capture the footfall of visitors to larger, popular local assets. Community tourism can help preserve historic and cultural heritage, improve management of land and assets for community use, encourage the development of new business opportunities, and improve the quality of services.
The project will support the development of community led tourism action plans in the two towns, keeping community needs at the heart of the project and connecting with local partners from the public, private and public sectors. SENScot and Creetown Initiative will work with local partners to set out a clear vision and objectives, assessing existing community tourism provision, and identifying opportunities for further development.
Sustainability will be considered throughout the process – we will work with the communities to develop businesses opportunities, create new projects and build on existing activity this will include identifying funding and investment.
Creetown Initiative and SENScot are delighted to be working with the two communities and to gathering evidence of the effectiveness of giving communities greater control over their tourism offering – we are ambitious for this project and the potential for rolling this out across Scotland.
