Introducing Highland Tourism CIC
Highland Tourism is a Community Interest Company. It has been created to unite The Highlands’ communities and the region’s tourism and hospitality businesses behind a new vision for a premium environmental tourist destination that will empower the highland economy. Having established The Highlands as an inspirational carbon positive destination, we aim to attract people to the Highlands to live, work, invest and study.
Highland Tourism’s ambitious programme will be delivered by three distinct brands.
Highland Tourism CIC is our business-to-business and communities brand – awakening Highland communities to the unique potential for conscious tourism in our naturally rich landscapes. The brand will engage stakeholders and businesses to develop the understanding and infrastructure needed to deliver the exceptional experiences that conscious tourists are seeking.
Escape to the Highlands is our consumer facing brand. It will reveal the treasures and hidden gems that the Highlands have to offer. Content from businesses and communities all over the Highlands will be curated to present a picture of a destination that offers authentic, immersive experiences in a place that is giving more to nature than it takes.
The Highlands is our Ultimate brand. Using the equity developed by our tourism brands, we will present a compelling image of The Highlands that will appeal to people considering relocating to live work and study sustainably. Our economy needs people if it is to grow and presenting an inspiring, authentic picture of the highlands and everything they have to offer will attract the kind of motivated people we need not just in the tourism industry but across our growing Renewables, Healthcare and Life Science sectors too.
Tourism is one of the mainstays of our Highland economy. For many Highland communities, it is THE mainstay.
Highland Tourism was created by the people of the Highlands for the people of the Highlands. Its vision is simple. To create a premium environmental tourism brand that will build on the Highlands’ natural strengths. Not just our vast and beautiful areas of wilderness, or our cultural heritage, but also the potential of our renewables, rewilding and carbon capture programmes to contribute to a dynamic, climate-positive, tourist destination. A destination that builds confidence and optimism for locals and visitors alike.
We will work with everyone across the sector to build understanding of, and leverage the potential for,
“conscious tourism”. Our goal is to drive tourism that puts people in touch with their surroundings, with
the communities they are visiting and with the wider environment. Tourism enriched by activities and
interactions that are unique to the Highlands.
Ultimately, our goal is not simply to create memories, it is to change futures.
The Highlands are rising to a higher level of consciousness. We are embracing transformations
in the way we think, the way we live and the way we work.
We have always been a land of pioneers. Our ancestors explored and settled in every corner of the globe. Our enterprise, tenacity and ingenuity became legendary. And now we, in turn, welcome newcomers and visitors from every part of the world.
We are creating a premium tourism brand that builds on our unique history as pioneers of natural energy and our future as a place that gives more to the planet than it takes.
This ground-breaking tourism brand is just the start of a greater, shared vision for the Highlands
as a naturally wealthy place to flourish.
An exciting, sustainable vision that everyone can buy into. From our renewables and rewilding initiatives to our burgeoning IT and life sciences sectors. From our food and drink producers to our many hospitality businesses. A vision to inspire our artists, musicians and makers. And ultimately, a vision that communities around the world can follow.
We aren’t just inspiring people. We are inspiring a planet.
Escape to the Highlands Website – Get Involved
By working together as a wider Highland community, we are creating a dynamic and compelling tourism offering.
Escape to the Highlands will be the centrepiece of a premium environmental brand that meets the aspirations of conscious tourists and inspires the conscious hosts who will meet, and ultimately surpass, their expectations.
Our Community led platform – Escape to the Highlands is designed to inspire consumers around the world with the range of premium sustainable tourism opportunities to which the whole highland region can provide.
We will soon share this test site to gain community feedback and enable tourism organisations and communities to see how we can all work together to realise this exciting opportunity for the Highlands.
For this reason, at this time we will not seek subscription or payment for users wishing to use the website. Instead, we will expect all those looking to promote their business, organisation or community through the site to be embracing a full range of measures to take them to carbon zero and beyond.
Rather than charging fees, we would ask that users promote their sustainability and their commitment to conscious tourism by investing in high quality sustainable visitor experiences. This should complement the vision of the website and align with the most ambitious sustainability goals.
We have curated the site to give everyone across the Highlands an idea of the quality and ethos of the experiences and content we envisage for the Escape to the Highlands brand. Highland Tourism welcomes the chance to work with aspiring businesses to create compelling content that drives understanding of our shared vision for the Highlands as a premium sustainable tourism destination.
This initiative is part of a wider strategic goal for the Highlands to have a world leading sustainable tourism strategy and we are working together with our colleagues and ambassadors in Slovenian Tourism to share best practise and to achieve this. By driving the sustainability agenda and helping to improve economic and environmental development and innovation across the region, we anticipate active and on-going support for the project from government, businesses and environmental philanthropists across the region.
Brand Framework
We have held creative brainstorming sessions with Ambassadors, community group representatives and tourism business owners from across The Highlands to create a brand framework that will inform how we develop and present Escapetothehighlands.org.
We have used this framework to create the pilot site and we would very much like to invite you to provide feedback and get involved to work with us on the next exciting stage of this project. We would like as many communities and tourism representatives as possible to get involved. Please contact us on info@highlandtourism.org
